Clint is Whom?
by Barton-Lover2
Summary: Something has happened to the entire group. No one knows what though. All they know is that when they woke up, they weren't in their right bodies anymore. What happened? Who did it? Why? What purpose does it serve? And how are they going to fix it before it becomes too late?
1. Chapter 1

Natasha froze. Something was off. She didn't feel like she was where she was supposed to be. Normally, Natasha associated this feeling with when she gets taken hostage. Thinking back, she couldn't find missing space in her memory. No sense of being drugged. No extra pain to account for being knocked out, so being taken hostage couldn't be what happened. Last thing she remembered doing was dressing for bed and lying down in her bedroom, at Stark Tower. Hell, she even remembered falling asleep. And there was no explanation for why she wasn't in her bedroom. But maybe it was just a bad feeling.

Opening her eyes, Natasha glanced around without moving more than her eyeballs. The good thing was, this place seemed like a familiar setting. One she had seen before and actually felt slightly comfortable being in. Unfreezing, Natasha glanced around even more. Before her, was a desk with three computer screens angled around just right so that Natasha could see all three at once. All three were currently blank. On the table its self were small electronic pieces that looked like it could have belonged to a phone or some sort of device. Just beyond the table, Natasha could see darkened shadows of large equipment. Turning around, she saw the small Keurig machine that Tony had demanded he have for his and Bruce's late night projects. That was when she finally understood.

"What the fuck am I doing in Tony's lab?" Natasha loudly questioned herself, not really expecting an answer from JARVIS. She also didn't expect her voice not sounding anything like normal. It didn't even sound female anymore. Reaching for her throat, Natasha paused in shock almost halfway there. The movement of her arm had shifted her chest over something strange. It was almost painful but not, sort of like her body registered what was there but her mind hadn't. Whatever the thing was it had been placed so precisely that it gently grazed the nearby muscles and even ribcage. It was as warm as the rest of her body, so it had been there a while. Her skin had healed over it just enough that when Natasha shifted again, it pulled at the edges. But her body could tell it wasn't fully natural. Looking down to it, Natasha almost screamed. "What the fuck?"

In the middle of her chest was Tony's arc reactor, glowing blue light just below her black muscle tank top. Crying out in shock, Natasha reached her hand below the shirt and felt around, praying to god that this was some sort of prank that the genius had pulled. But when her skin touched the center of the reactor and she could feel the slight vibration of the magnet, she nearly cried out in horror. It wasn't fake.

But before she could reflect on the situation any longer, from above came a load, guttural roar. Which she found partly weird considering her room is actually above Bruce's room. Then again, Tony's lab is directly below the other scientist's room. Jumping to her feet, Natasha finally caught her reflection in one of the computer monitors. It was here that she froze, again, because staring back at her was not her face, but, the face of Tony Stark. She almost screamed as the situation really hit her but stopped herself when another roar echoed from above.

"Right, deal with Hulk, then... Whatever the fuck this is about," Natasha muttered to herself. Taking one more glance at her reflection, Natasha shook her head in distaste at Tony's grungy face. Already she felt disgusted and figured she'd have to shower for over an hour after all this was through. But the less she thought about it all, the more… Comfortable she became. Rushing up the stairs, Natasha bumped into Steve, who had asked for the lowest room in the tower as he wanted to be able to be the first downstairs if something happened so he could help.

"Tony? What the heck is going on?" Steve inquired, sounding slightly off. Natasha shook her as the two rushed toward Bruce's room. She half wondered if Steve was who she thought he was. Could this have happened to all of them? If so, who was Hulk right now?

"Not Tony. Natasha," she admitted. Steve glanced at her once again. His expression showed confusion and surprise, as if he hadn't expected anything like that. Natasha scoffed. "Really, Steve? After all this, you can't believe that?"

"Actually… I'm Bruce," Steve, no Bruce, retorted just as the duo burst onto Bruce's floor to see Hulk roaring at a broken mirror on the floor. Natasha froze before looking over Hulk and then slowly turning back to Bruce (turned Steve). This was really not good.

"If you're Bruce… And I'm Tony…. Who is Hulk?" Natasha wondered just as the others burst into the room. Natasha's body walked right up to Bruce and looked him over before turning to Natasha. Right away the spy could see the difference in walking. Judging by that, she could pretty much guess that it was Steve that had taken over her but she wasn't entirely certain. Arrow (Clint's Christmas gift after being turned into a kid [ **Read** _ **After Training, Everything Goes Wrong**_ **if you don't understand** ]) slowly trailed after Clint's body, whining in confusion. The pup looked as lost as everyone else felt.

"What did you do?" the body accused. Natasha shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest until she found that it hurt just a bit. She covered the insecurity with another grunt and shifted her arms to her hips instead. A movement so fluid that only Clint would notice that something had bothered her in the first position.

"I'm Natasha," she replied, coolly as if this type of situation happened every day. Which considering the Avengers past at this point, it shouldn't come as a surprise. Natasha's body, which Natasha was now certain in assuming was Steve, then looked to the others, confused. Slowly, Thor's body raised his hand as if he was trying to get a teacher's attention.

"I swear to whoever you want me to swear to, that I didn't do this. Last night I was working on some new communication devices for all of us," Thor's body answered. Natasha's eyes narrowed. That sounded like the genius that she had taken over. And if that was true, that would explain all the random equipment on the table before her when she woke. Maybe he was speaking the truth.

"Tony?" Bruce asked. Thor's body nodded. Natasha sighed as Hulk slowly looked over to the group in a saddened look. His eyes widened at Clint's body before rushing over. Amazingly Clint's body did not move or even react at the very hostile act from the enraged beast. Everyone else at least tensed. Normally, the only person who didn't shift was Thor. Which was surprising considering Hulk attacked Thor more than the others.

"Not CUPID!" Hulk screamed. Clint's body nodded. Arrow perked up at the green guy and hesitantly sniffed the air. Something about Hulk had intrigued the pup. Natasha figured it had to do with 'Cupid' which the Avengers had learned a few missions prior that he actually meant 'Clint.'

"Indeed I am not. I am Thor, son of Odin, wielder of Mjolnir and god of thunder," Clint's body countered. Hulk roared at Thor in anger. Natasha inched forward, holding her hands up in defense when Hulk whipped his head to face her. Hulk actually did tend to get along with everyone but Thor. He was usually best with Clint or Steve but considering the circumstances, Natasha was willing to take her chances.

"I'm guessing Cli- Cupid is now your other half?" Natasha inquired as if Hulk would understand. Everyone was shocked when Hulk nodded in confirmation. Natasha swore then. Clint was now in Bruce's body and Hulk never moved over with Bruce. Natasha's body stepped forward. Slowly, Natasha backed off, giving Steve room to try and work his magic with the rage machine. Hulk just glared.

"Hulk, buddy, it's me, Steve. I want to know, if it's possible that you can bring Cli… Cupid back, like you do with Bruce?" Steve questioned. Hulk gave Natasha's body an odd looked before looking over to Steve's body. He seemed to be questioning the order before finally the green giant nodded and began shrinking down. Steve and Natasha moved to stand on other side as Hulk soon turned into Bruce's body. Everyone knew from prior experience that a random Hulk-out left Bruce more drained then if he gave in to it.

"Ugh… What mac truck hit me?" Bruce's body moaned. It was such a normal Clint response that everyone couldn't help but crack a smile at that. No matter what the situation, Clint could pretty much always cheer them up. Arrow yipped lightly before rushing to Bruce's body. Another sniff and then Arrow nudged the man with his nose. Clint (as Bruce) looked up and began to pet Arrow in an effort to stop him from licking or attacking him with love. Amazingly he didn't comment on the blurred vision as he figured that had to do with his screaming head.

"That would be a mac truck called Hulk," Bruce responded with a light smile. Clint jerked up in surprise and stared at the others. His eyes wandered slowly over each and every body. Bruce's eyes being so much different from his own made it harder for Clint to note the differences in everyone but... When he finally noticed his body staring back at him, he looked down to see who he was in. That's when this happened.

"Holy hell! What the fuck happened?" Clint cried, jerking out of Natasha's and Steve's grips. Natasha almost laughed aloud. Arrow yipped again in surprise and looked about. His eyes focused on Clint's body before back to Bruce's body in confusion. He seemed still uncertain which one was his master as both had similarities to the man.

"We, uh… Apparently switched bodies last night," Tony (as Thor) replied. "But, I swear I didn't do it!"

"We get it Tony," Steve (as Natasha) growled. Clint rapidly blinked in shock, trying to get a handle on who was who. Bruce (as Steve) moved deeper into the room to grab an extra pair of glasses that had been missed by Hulk's rampage earlier. He easily dropped them in Clint's hands. Clint glanced over at the doctor before nodding his thanks and putting them on.

"Ok, before this goes any further, why don't we all 'introduce' ourselves?" Natasha (as Tony) suggested. She then raised her hand. "I am Natasha."

"I'm Steve," Steve (as Natasha) declared, raising his hand when Natasha put hers down.

"I'm Bruce," Bruce (as Steve) mentioned when everyone looked to Steve's body.

"Clint," Clint (as Bruce) replied, even though no one looked to him. Everyone had turned to Clint's body.

"Thor, son of-" Thor (as Clint) began.

"Tony Stark!" Tony (as Thor) interrupted. Thor frowned, dejected that he couldn't finish. Natasha nodded, feeling immensely better that it wasn't Tony that had been moved into her own body. Even though she had assumed as much, hearing it once again felt like it was actually real. Clint groaned suddenly and reached back for a seat, Natasha and Steve caught him before he fell. Already, everyone could see signs of Hulk rearing forward once again. Tony rushed forward to grab Arrow by his collar and pulled the pup back. Arrow whined and whimpered but didn't protest much. The dog had been around enough to know that Bruce's body could turn mean and green. Bruce moved closer, grabbing at Clint's head and holding him steady. Steve and Natasha took two seconds before they understood and backed off. In their current bodies, neither were safe but considering Bruce was in Steve's body, he could handle Hulk.

"Listen to me. Clint, you need to focus. Don't fight the rage. Trust me that never works. Accept it. Accept that it's there. Make it part of you. Give it a place to watch through your eyes. Don't push it back. Just let it sit there," Bruce commanded. Clint nodded lightly before he calmed. After a minute, the archer looked up, his eyes were still green but when Bruce smiled, everyone assumed that was a good sign. Slowly, Bruce let go of the archer and backed away. Arrow pulled at Tony's grip until finally the genius let go. Knowing he was in Thor's body, Tony hadn't wanted to hurt the pup so he had had a very lax grip. The dog stopped moving once he was a foot away from Clint. Almost as if he could still sense Hulk was close by but wanted to be there for his master.

"God, you sound like a freaking Jedi or something," Clint joked when it was over. Bruce laughed, Tony chuckled, while Natasha smiled. Steve and Thor traded a look as neither understood the joke. Clint glanced back down at the floor as he continued to focus on accepting the anger and rage.

"That's kind of what gave me the idea," Bruce retorted. Clint looked up at Bruce, his eyes were blood shot and still had a green tinge to them. In fact, the poor guy looked like he was suffering from some sort of massive migraine. Nothing like how Bruce looked on a daily basis. Bruce frowned, half wondering if Hulk was fighting the archer more because the big guy could tell something was wrong.

"Is he always like this?" Clint moaned. Bruce nodded, understanding right away what the archer meant. Though the doctor couldn't tell if Hulk was fighting harder than normal or not. Not that any of it made a difference, Hulk always fought. "How can you stand this?"

"I did try to kill myself," Bruce gently answered. The others winced at the memory of when he had first admitted that. Clint gave him a curious look. Out of everyone, he hadn't been there when Bruce first admitted this. Bruce sighed. "I got down… So I tried to eat a bullet. Hulk spit it out."

"I'm… I'm sorry," Clint whispered. Bruce smiled and patted the archer on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. I've handled it a lot better lately then I did back then," Bruce replied. Clint smiled lightly, the green in his eyes diminishing to just beyond the brown; a look that Bruce had gotten very used to seeing in the mirror. It was a sign that Hulk had backed down and that Clint was safe. Apparently their words must have reached the green guy. Smiling, Bruce held a hand out to Clint. Clint looked down at it before hesitantly taking it. Gently, Bruce pulled the archer to his feet. Arrow moved even closer, nudging Bruce's body's leg. Clint glanced down before petting the dog and looking back up at the doctor. To the pup, that meant that this was his true master and not the one that smelt like his master.

"No offense Bruce, but can we figure out how to fix this?" Clint groaned once he was steady. Bruce smiled, showing that he took no offense to Clint's statement. Out of everyone, he had the most to gain in this situation. But Bruce had never wished Hulk on anyone, no matter how much peace it may give him.

"First we need to figure out how this happened," Natasha stated. Everyone glanced at Tony. He frowned.

"I said I didn't do it!" Tony declared. Natasha rolled her eyes, Tony grimaced. "That looks so wrong."

"What?" Natasha asked.

"You rolling my eyes," Tony mentioned. Natasha sighed.

"Just try and figure out what happened, and see if anyone outside of us has been affected," Natasha demanded. Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise. Nobody had even thought that other people might have been affected. It was one thing that Nick Fury had argued when Tony had first gone on about inviting all the other Avengers into his tower. Fury had mentioned that if someone went to attack the Avengers, the employees who worked in Stark Tower would all be affected as well. Tony had said that it was ridiculous but as he looked down at Thor's body, the genius began to rethink that whole idea.

"J! Can you check on all other members in the tower? Is anyone else affected by…. Whatever this is?" Tony called up to the ceiling. There was a long pause. One that made everyone wonder if the AI was even operational.

"Sir, I have been following this situation since I had a power surge last night around midnight. The only residents in the tower at the time were the members of the Avengers. That being said, only the members of the Avengers had been affected," JARVIS intoned.

"Wait, so you can tell that things are different?" Tony asked, shocked.

"Since Dr. Banner moved into the tower, I have been monitoring every resident's vitals, personalities and other such details. Through that, I have been able to spot your changes even before any of you were aware of it," JARVIS mentioned. Tony looked to Bruce, surprised that the AI had not only followed Bruce's orders but that the AI could pin point each Avenger because of minute details in each of them.

"So, can you tell what did this to us?" Bruce questioned.

"I cannot, Dr. Banner. My feeds were knocked out because of the power surge and came back online after you all had switched," JARVIS answered. "By the way, Ms. Potts has asked me to tell Sir that she is on her way to the tower and will be here…. Well, in less than five minutes."

"It took you this long to mention that?" Tony demanded before spinning on his heel and taking off upstairs. The others stood in place for a moment longer before Bruce looked to Natasha.

"Think he'll realize that he looks like Thor currently?" Natasha groaned and shook her head before slowly following after the genius.

"Tony!" she called. Tony either didn't hear or didn't care because he just continued on his way. The others slowly began to follow after them.

* * *

"I'm telling you, Pep will totally know it's me," Tony argued, crossing his arms over his chest in indignation. Clint snorted, relaxing back in the huge arm chair that Thor normally sat in when they convened in the living room. Arrow was on the floor next to him but was still curiously watching Thor. Everyone agreed that it looked odd seeing Bruce's body relaxing like Clint normally would but no one wanted to stop each other from acting like themselves. In fact, no one was really sure what to do at the moment. They had no idea if they wanted to keep the switch a secret or if they wanted to let the world know and try and hide away until it was fixed.

"I'm telling you, she won't. It's really hard to notice any changes Tony," Natasha snapped back, leaning against the kitchen island, trying to find the best way to relax with the Arc Reactor in her chest now. Steve was sitting stiffly in one of the island chairs in front of her, trying not to touch a single part of his body right now. His face was almost turning pink as he tried to get comfortable. Natasha rolled her eyes at the soldier. "You had to have seen some part of me by now, Steve. I know I was in pajamas last night."

"Ooh, Cap got owned," Clint crooned as Steve blush deepened, an odd look on Natasha's normally reserved body. Tony froze at the sight.

"Wow. I didn't know that body could blush," Tony joked. Clint started laughing while Bruce placed a hand over his mouth to stop a laugh from escaping. Steve looked to the ground, trying not to smile. Natasha glared at the genius while Thor glanced over everyone. Arrow barked happily; glad that everyone seemed fine and well even with what the dog could sense was wrong.

"I do not understand. I thought such thing was a natural reaction to embarrassment," Thor called. Clint started cracking up even more before groaning and grabbing his head. Everyone paused in their merriment to watch him.

"Oh god, I'm gonna have to leave before Hulk comes out again," he mumbled. Bruce shifted to stand closer to the archer. Arrow licked the archer's hand in an effort to calm his supposed master. Thankfully it seemed to help as the green glow from behind Clint's lids faded away.

"Blood pressure is what makes him come out. Anything that makes you raise your blood pressure. You have to keep that at a steady level," Bruce encouraged. Clint snorted and gave the doc a sidelong glance.

"Have you learned nothing about living with me, man?" the archer muttered.

"Hey, you can't keep Hulk contained, you go down to Hulk's play room while Pep's in building, got it?" Tony ordered, pointing a finger at the archer. Clint narrowed his gaze on the genius, his eyes flashing green. But Tony wasn't perturbed.

"Don't order me around," he snarled, his voice going deeper. Tony paled slightly before glancing down at himself. Clint shook his head, trying to get control. Arrow surged to his feet, growling at the genius. The pup could tell that Tony was the one inciting this recent outburst and if biting him stopped it, then that's what Arrow would do. All to protect his master.

"Wait, I'm in Thor right now. I can handle the big guy. Bring it," Tony challenged, turning to face Clint head on. Clint looked up at Tony as Steve stood up and got in between the two. Even Arrow backed down at the Captain's presence. Having been around the Avengers since Christmas, Arrow had gotten used to what everyone felt like, not just Clint. It was almost like he was service dog for all of them.

"Whoa you guys, settle down. We don't want to fight right now," Steve warned. Natasha snorted.

"Steve, you aren't in the best body to try and stop them," she pointed out. Steve frowned, looking down at his feminine form before sighing.

"I'm still the captain and I'm asking you both to stand down," Steve told them. Clint groaned once again before shifting in the seat to get in a more normal position. Bruce kneeled on the ground in front of him.

"Remember what I said. Let him see from your eyes. Let him go. Don't fight him," Bruce reminded. Clint nodded and opened his eyes but didn't look up from the ground. Huffing, Clint kept control over Hulk but everyone could tell it was just barely. Tony snorted.

"I could so take you," he muttered before turning to face the elevator once more. Clint groaned and leaned back in the chair again as he tried to relax after once again dealing with fighting back the Hulk. He looked paler than before. Natasha frowned before remembering something Bruce had once said. Hulk ate up calories. A lot of calories. Maybe even fighting off Hulk ate up calories and seeing as Clint wasn't as used to it as Bruce, he was showing it more. Slowly, she turned to get some food for the archer. Arrow slowly followed, believing that he was actually going to get fed breakfast. Everyone had forgotten about that so far.

"Tony, we really don't want to encourage fighting right now," Bruce pressed, checking over Clint. The archer waved the doctor off. Bruce frowned before realizing he was in Steve's body, his gentle gyrations might not be as gentle as he thought. "Sorry, was I being too hard?"

"A little. Felt good though. The muscles were a bit sore," Clint moaned. Bruce chuckled lightly before going back at it, being more mindful of the amount of pressure he was using. Steve meandered over, standing at Clint's head and leaning down. Clint smiled when the captain leaned down though. "Might want to watch how you stand there, Cap."

"Hmm?" the soldier hummed before realizing that Clint could see down his shirt. Outraged, Steve backed up and clasped the top of his shirt before realizing where he was grabbing and let go, glancing at Natasha as she walked over with a tray of food for the archer. Natasha snorted and shook her head.

"Hey, I'm okay with whatever you have to do at this point, Steve. Better you, than Tony," she mentioned. Steve blushed again.

"Whatever he has to do?" Tony chorused, glancing back at them before understanding what Natasha meant. His eyes then trailed over his own body. Natasha paused in his gazing as Clint reached up to grab some of the food off the tray. "Ugh... You're gonna see me naked now..."

"Not like I haven't seen it before," she commented. Tony frowned.

"When?" he asked.

"When I was your assistant," she reminded as Clint spit out the food he grabbed.

"Ugh, what the hell was that!" he cried. She frowned and looked at him. Her conversation with Tony lost as everyone wondered what Clint's problem was.

"Your specially imported Brazilian sausage*," Natasha replied, curious. Clint was the only one in the entire tower that liked the crap. He had gotten some once on a mission and had gotten addicted to it. Coulson used to specially order it for him whenever they were on base together and once Clint moved into the Towers, the archer made JARVIS order it. Clint frowned and sat up.

"Seriously? That tasted like ass," Clint mentioned. Everyone frowned at that. What was going on?

"Pretty much how we all feel," Tony joked. Clint frowned.

"I've never felt that way though. I've always liked that," Clint said. Tony shrugged as Thor slowly walked over, sniffing the air. Almost as if fearing he'd be yelled at, he slowly and carefully grabbed a separate sausage and shoved the whole thing in his mouth. Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Well?" she prodded the thunderer. Thor smiled.

"Tis much better now that I have tried a second time," Thor declared before reaching for the remaining sausages on the plate. Natasha glanced at Bruce. He was frowning.

"Maybe we come with the bodies' preferences?" he suggested. Clint groaned and fell back into the chair.

"Great! Now I have to make tea every damned day!" he complained. Natasha snorted before gently hitting the archer in the arm. Clint chuckled lightly as he rubbed the spot she hit.

"Be careful doing that," Bruce warned, reminding Natasha of the limited amount of control that Clint had over Hulk. Natasha nodded as finally the elevator doors dinged, meaning that Pepper had officially arrived. Tony moved to stand at the end of the hall, blocking the view of most of the other Avengers. Clint relaxed back in the seat again. Natasha snorted, leaning against the chair. Bruce crossed his arms over his chest, wondering how Pepper was going to take this. Steve sat down on the chair he had vacated earlier to break up the impending fight between Tony and Clint. Thor stole the tray of food that Natasha had abandoned and meandered over toward the back of the couch to rest against it and enjoy the treat.

The doors opened and Pepper stepped out. She didn't even glance up to see the gathering before her. Instead, she apparently assumed that Tony was still in the lab waiting for her to call him again, so she started walking down the hall, reading papers in her hands. Tony opened his arms wide, waiting for a hug and kiss from his still rather pregnant girlfriend. She was only a few months off from delivery.

"Peps!" he called. The voice and name made her stop and look up at the gathering in surprise.

"Thor? Is something wrong?" she asked, confused as to why the thunderer would call her by the nickname that her boyfriend would call her by. Tony (as Thor) frowned deeply. Natasha (as Tony) chuckled.

"Peps, it's me," Tony tried again. Pepper frowned, looking even more confused by the second. She glanced over the assembled Avengers before some sort of understanding dawned over her. Her eyes focused on Natasha (as Tony).

"Oh, okay. I get it Tony. Ha ha, very funny. Trying to skip out on another important meeting. Well it isn't going to work," Pepper declared. Tony (as Thor) sighed and dropped his arms finally. Steve (as Natasha) stood from his seat and shook his head.

"I'm sorry Ms. Potts. But this isn't a joke. That is Tony," Steve reassured. Pepper stared at the solider for a moment before looking over at Bruce (as Steve). Then she looked back at Steve.

"Yeah. Very thorough. But, we're very late. So, Tony, if you could," Pepper pleaded once again. Natasha shook her head.

"Pepper, I'm Natasha. Tony is in front of you," Natasha pressed. Pepper glanced over the group as a whole. There were subtle hints of the change. Natasha's body had a more commanding air about it, similar to the air that Steve normally gave off. Bruce's body was relaxed across the couch in a way that only Clint found comfortable. Steve stood over the doctor's body looking worried and watching for any signs of discomfort like Bruce normally did. Tony's body was sitting on the arm rest of the chair that Bruce's body was relaxed in. He had his legs cross like Natasha. Clint's body was standing off to the side, scarfing his favorite food down with a manner that only Thor could provide. And Thor...

"JARVIS," she cried, alarmed at the idea. "Is Tony pulling a prank on me?"

"I am sorry to inform you but no. Sir has not informed me of such notions. Biometric scans and brain waves prove that each person has indeed currently switched bodies," JARVIS intoned. Pepper blinked once. Then twice. Then three times before looking everyone over again. Slowly she pointed to everyone. She started with Steve first.

"Captain Steven Rogers," Steve (as Natasha) said. Pepper moved onto Steve's body.

"Doctor Robert Bruce Banner," Bruce (as Steve) replied. Pepper nodded before pointing down to his relaxing body. Clint waved.

"Clinton Francis Barton-Stark," Clint (as Bruce) dubbed himself. Pepper smiled lightly remembering last Christmas were Tony and she basically adopted the archer. Even though it wasn't ever made official, Clint still loved to call himself Barton-Stark. Actually, it pleased all of them that he liked doing that so no one requested that he stop. Slowly Pepper's finger traveled to the archer's body.

"I am Thor, son of Odin, wielder of Mjolnir and god of thunder," Thor (as Clint) enlisted. Pepper sighed before moving onto Thor's body.

"Anthony Edward Stark," Tony (as Thor) claimed. Pepper gave a light gasp before finally pointing to Tony's body even though she knew it left only one member.

"Natasha Romanoff," Natasha (as Tony) finished. Pepper nodded once before pursing her lips turning around and walking off. Once she was in the elevator and the doors closed, Tony looked back at them all.

"Well, that went better than-" he started but was stopped when Pepper's scream echoed down the hall.

* * *

 **5197 words. This is going to be a very fun story. Sorry this took so long to post... The site was being mean as some of you may know from my previous story.**

 **To those of you who are new to this story, as mentioned earlier in the chapter, please make sure to read my story** _ **After Training, Everything Goes Wrong**_ **. ATEGW is posted on an old account named Barton-Lover. This story (CIW) is a direct sequel to that one and you will not understand many references to the other story. To those of you following directly into this, WELCOME BACK! Hope you all like this story!**

 ***Brazilian sausage - I was honestly trying to find a food that not many people like that I've never heard of but research doesn't work well for me. So, I came up with this idea. If you like this, I've never tried it or even seen what it looks like. I just used it, please don't be mad.**

 **Thank you all and I'll see you soon for the next chapter!**

 **BTW, I don't own any rights to any MARVEL character. (always forget that)**


	2. Chapter 2

"So, you mean to tell me that you have no idea what happened?" Pepper asked. Everyone nodded. It hadn't taken long to convince Pepper that it wasn't good to bring Natasha (as Tony) out to an important investors meeting and pretend that she was Tony. Even though she more than likely could pull it off, if even one member had the slightest clue that she wasn't Tony, the jig was up. JARVIS sent a message claiming that Tony had gone on an important and top secret Avengers mission, hence why he was missing the meeting. And Pepper was forced to miss the meeting due to some unforeseen pregnancy mishap. Amazingly enough, the investors bought the excuse and rescheduled the meeting for the next week. Pepper had no idea if things would be fixed by then or not, but at least she had a better chance.

"We went to bed as normal, woke up and bam! Suddenly, we were someone else," Clint (as Bruce) explained, slamming his hands together to emphasize the 'bam'. Everyone winced, still not used to seeing Bruce's body so animated. Arrow barked at the archer until Clint leaned down to pet the dog. The group waited a beat to make sure Hulk wouldn't appear but apparently Clint had better control then they gave him credit for. A good thing in the end. Pepper glanced over at Tony's body, unused to the idea that it wasn't Tony in that body. She almost wanted to go over and cuddle with him. A quick glance at where Tony (as Thor) actually was and she nearly shuddered at the thought of curling up beside Thor.

"Are you sure you didn't do anything?" she wondered, rubbing her stomach as the baby inside kicked. Stressing out at this moment was not doing well on her body or the growing infant inside. Thankfully she was far enough along that she wouldn't lose the baby but the stress could induce labor.

"Are you asking me? Or Natasha?" Tony inquired, raising his hand from the other side of the room. Pepper groaned, dropping her head into her hands. She had been doing that for much of this conversation. Thankfully some of the others had been doing it as well and no one (even Tony) was using it against her. It was a big change for them all.

"You, Tony," she grumbled into her hands. The others chuckled.

"Yes! God, why does no one believe that I was simply working on a new comm device for all of us?" Tony complained, overly animating himself by tossing his arms into the air.

"Uh, cause you're you," Clint pointed out, relaxing back into Natasha's bodies legs (which were now currently Steve's). He normally used to sit like this on a day to day basis and neither assassin seemed to mind but as Clint relaxed more and more, both seemed to find the positioning rather uncomfortable.

"Clint, that feels weird, can you stop?" Steve (as Natasha) mumbled, twitching his legs a bit. Clint sat up and glanced back at Steve. The archer couldn't tell what was wrong. Steve was sitting how Natasha usually always sat and even Clint was in the correct positioning. So the archer couldn't understand what was wrong.

"I always lean on Nat," he moaned. Steve frowned and looked over at Natasha for help on the matter. Natasha pressed a hand to her head as she shook it. Clint focused on her. His confused look actually made Bruce's face blush lightly and amazingly looked really adorable.

"Clint, you're in Bruce's body right now," Natasha pointed out. Clint frowned before looking down. His confusion grew for a second more before everyone could see when the archer realized what she meant. It wouldn't feel the same.

"Oh yeah," he grumped before sitting up even more. Thor (as Clint) smiled from his place leaning against the wall, where he had been since this whole thing had started. Steve glanced over at the thunderer to see if he'd come over but Thor looked quite content.

"Who have we pissed off lately that could have done this?" Tony wondered, moving to sit beside Pepper as the woman winced. She shrugged it off, mouthing that the baby had kicked or something. Tony sighed and sat down; neither mentioned the creaking of the couch. Thor normally never sat on the couch and it wasn't truly meant to hold someone of his bulk. Steve sometimes had issues sitting on it as well.

"Loki?" Clint suggested, getting off the floor to walk over to Bruce's normal chair. He plopped down with his typical flourish. Bruce (as Steve) moved to stand by him as a just in case anything happened with Hulk. He knew that the green guy was on a hair pin trigger and Clint's rather ease and relaxed stance was beginning to worry the doc.

"I fear Loki would not have done this. This type of magic is beneath even him," Thor mentioned. Clint shook his head but didn't reply as he suddenly found Bruce's glasses slipping off his face. Frowning, he pushed them up his face. Going from perfect vision to suddenly needing glasses was a big adjustment. But he was surprised to find that Bruce's vision wasn't as bad as the archer had originally thought. Clint had always assumed it was like what one would see in the horror movies, the guy loses his glasses and suddenly can't tell the difference between a doorway and a wall.

"Still doesn't really rule him out," Bruce stated, crossing his arms. "Just because it's beneath him doesn't mean he wouldn't do it. He might just be bored or out of ideas."

"Aye. But Amora is more likely one who would do this. But she has been imprisoned. I know of no other magic wielder in Asgard strong enough for this," Thor added. Steve stood and moved to the kitchen, feeling that he needed a higher vantage point. He pulled a barstool out from the kitchen island and sat down. Natasha smirked. It would have been a place she would have chosen.

"I only know of Doctor Stephen Strange, but he's on our side," Tony claimed, rubbing Pepper's shoulders in an effort to calm her. Little did he know he was too strong and he wasn't helping. Pepper gritted her teeth to stop from saying something she knew she'd regret no matter how much Tony was hurting her.

"What about those mutants or 'enhanced'? Like Scarlet Witch?" Clint wondered, waving his hand about. Some of them went by mutant like the X-Men and others seemed to like the term enhanced. Really seemed to be a personal preference.

"Mutants aren't ones to get involved in bigger issues like us without being provoked," Natasha alleged. Clint frowned. Tony groaned aloud and dropped his head into his hands, an odd look for Thor's body. Pepper sighed in relief even as she realized that they were quickly running out of people with the ability to basically switch everyone's souls.

"I don't get it! We haven't pissed off any magic wielders powerful enough... No one spiteful enough seems to have wanted to do it or hire someone who could... I didn't do anything to cause this... So what happened?" Tony moaned. For a genius he was going a horrible job solving this issue. Then again, the others weren't much help. All they kept doing was discounting each other. No one had an idea what was going on.

"Could we be wrong? Could Loki have changed and decided that this was worth it? Or Amora escaped from her prison?" Natasha suggested, staring at Thor. The Asgardian shrugged in a way that he had seen Clint do many times before. It seemed Thor was trying to 'get into character'. Not a bad idea if they decided to go that route and hide the switch from the world.

"Tis possible. But I fear Heimdall would have warned me before either would have been able to cast such a spell. The amount of energy, time, and concentration needed to cast this type of enchantment would have given many the opportunity to warn me," Thor explained. Natasha cast a glance at the others, wondering if they believed Thor. As much as they didn't know about magic and trusted Thor, the thunderer had proven wrong on many counts. He actually didn't really know more than they did when it came to magic.

"Is it possible that the spell could have been done a long time ago on an object and whoever had done it waited to activate it until now?" Bruce whispered, sounding mostly like he was talking to himself more than any of the others. Thor frowned to himself as he thought over the idea. It was a plausible idea.

"That sounds like the plot to a fricken fantasy movie," Clint snarked. Bruce shrugged and pointed to Thor's body.

"We kind of live in a fantasy movie," the doctor stated. Clint followed the finger to Tony and sighed. When Clint had first met the thunderer, Thor had proclaimed himself a god who had simply lost his powers. After everything that had happened since meeting Thor and his mystical hammer Mjolnir, Clint couldn't help but believe Bruce. Arrow took that moment to return into the room. He happily trotted over to Clint and rubbed his head against the archer's hand. Clint absentmindedly began petting the pup.

"Well, considering we can't figure out who did this," Steve mentioned through the silence that followed. Everyone looked over to the captain, who was awkwardly sitting down in a way that no part of his body touched another part. Almost as if he feared Natasha would kill him later for having seen her naked, even though Natasha already admitted she didn't care. "Maybe we should figure out what we are going to do about it?"

"Going to do about it?" Pepper echoed, confused. Steve nodded.

"Well, are we going to hide in Avengers Tower until this gets fixed on its own? Are we going to announce to the world that something has happened to us? Are we going to try and act like each other and cover it all up while trying to solve it?" Steve asked. Everyone looked each other over as they thought over the captain's words. It was a good time to talk about it but there was just so much to consider. What would they do if someone figured it out? Who would handle Avenger like missions if not the Avengers? If they announced that something happened, who would be willing to use this information against them?

"Jesus... I don't think anyone really wanted to think about that Cap," Tony moaned. Steve shrugged. It would have to be discussed at some point. There were just some things that needed to be discussed. After the issue with Clint having been turned into a kid, the Avengers had set up a protocol for situations like this. But nothing as in depth to explain something like this. Honestly, this issue had never come up when they made the protocols. "Hey J, what did we discuss would happen?"

"The general protocol for undetermined events like this was to alert S.H.I.E.L.D of such matters. If S.H.I.E.L.D is to try and attack any members of the Avengers, I am to lock all members of that group out of the tower until notice is given to me that they are safe. S.H.I.E.L.D itself has a protocol to alert the Fantastic Four of our issue and notify them that they are to handle any Avenger like missions. As for other parameters, it was decided that you would make more as the issues arose," JARVIS intoned.

"Okay, there. It's decided," Tony stated, looking back at Steve with a smug look that seemed so wrong on Thor's face. Steve gave the genius a disapproving frown. Tony shuddered. "That looks so wrong on you."

"Okay, JARVIS, can you contact Director Fury and alert him of what happened?" Natasha asked. JARVIS didn't reply for a moment. When he did, it was actually with the TV turning on to a fresh video feed of one Nicholas J. Fury.

"Stark, what the fuck did you do this time?" Fury demanded before anyone could say otherwise. Tony quickly held his hands up in defense making Fury's one good eye narrow in confusion.

"How many times do I have to say that I didn't do this?" Tony cried. Fury looked over Thor's body before looking over Tony's body. Natasha positioned Tony's body in her natural 'don't give me shit' posture. Fury's eye narrowed even further. JARVIS had relayed the message that the Avengers had switched bodies but Fury hadn't believed it. But now as he stared at the group, the Director could see what the AI had meant. Fury looked around the room with a disbelieving eye.

"Stark?" Fury questioned, pointing toward the thunderer's body. Tony nodded.

"Yeah. Didn't J brief you? J, what did I make you for?" Tony chastised, looking off toward a different camera for his AI. JARVIS didn't reply.

"So, no one is themselves?" Fury wondered. Pepper raised her hand.

"I wasn't here so, I guess I got lucky," she claimed. Arrow barked at the director before growling lightly. Fury nodded at the CEO and rolled his eyes at the dog. "I was out of the state on a business deal. I just returned this morning."

"So, any idea who did this?" Fury questioned, resigned that this was happening to his number one team and that there was nothing he could do about it. The Avengers, who had been discussing such a matter only moments before hand, all shook their heads. Fury sighed and placed a hand on his head. Of course they didn't have any idea. For the fact that Fury had made this team to fight super villains and battle worldwide threats, they weren't the best at figuring out why things happened to them unless it was right in front of them.

"Honestly, there are too many names to count. But any with actual ability and not captured and/or limited by other methods at the moment, the list considerably shortens. Even so, that shortened list, the names mentioned don't seem to fit this situation," Steve explained, standing. Fury focused on the solider for a moment before looking him up and down. Then he blinked once, twice and finally a third time before a snort came out of Fury. Finally a chuckle and then another until Fury couldn't hold back any longer and the Director was laughing at Steve. Steve sighed. "Yes, I am in Natasha's body."

"That has honestly made my day. No, my week," the director admitted, wiping tears away from his eye as he calmed down from his laughter. Clint smirked.

"It's been too long since I last heard you laugh, Director," Clint admitted, sitting up from his seat. Fury turned to focus on Bruce's body and raised an eyebrow. His eye slowly traced over the ex-doctor's body as he saw the archer's noticeable relaxed vibe come from the form.

"Barton? Seriously?" Clint nodded. "Oh, shit."

"Hey, I can keep my cool!" Clint defended, knowing that Fury was worried about him. The two had a long history together that many of the Avengers had no clue about. And as Fury and Clint stared each other down, each Avenger wondered what Fury knew about Clint that they didn't. Bruce placed his hand on his ex-body, ending the staring contest that Clint was having with the director as the action startled Clint into looking behind him.

"I've been helping him," the doctor warned, eyes narrowing on Fury, showing that he was going to defend Clint as Clint had once defended him in the past. Fury's eye narrowed as he looked the two over. While he was okay with allowing Bruce free reign with hiding out in Avengers Tower, he wasn't sure he was okay with allowing Clint to hide there. Clint didn't have years of experience with keeping Hulk at bay.

"Avengers Tower was built to withstand Hulk, Thor and Steve. If Clint can't hold back Hulk one day, he won't be able to leave if JARVIS locks the tower down," Tony growled, standing to show which side of this fight he'd be on. Pepper gently hugged her stomach, worried for her unborn child and unconsciously showing that she was choosing Fury's side of this debate. Thankfully Clint didn't notice. Steve crossed his arms, showing he'd protect Clint as well. Natasha's eyes narrowed, placing herself on Clint's side as well. Thor grunted and nodded, putting himself with the Avengers.

"Fine. Just know that if there is one step out of line, he will be locked up until this is fixed," Fury cautioned, glancing around at the Avengers as he spoke. Clint paled before glancing at Bruce. He was finally beginning to truly understand what it was like to be Bruce.

"So that's what that feels like," the archer whispered. Bruce gave him a small smile as he gently tightened his grip on the archer's shoulder. Sighing, Clint focused back on Fury as he mentally begged Hulk not to step out of line. Neither of them wanted to get locked up. Clint was slightly surprised to hear a guttural growl of agreement. He'd have to talk to Bruce about that later. Something about hearing the green guy in his head was going to get weird.

"Okay. I'll alert the Fantastic Four that you guys are down," Fury began, mentally reviewing the S.H.I.E.L.D handbook on the Avengers Protocol.

"Already done," Tony interrupted, having made JARVIS do so after calling Fury. Fury shook his head. He should have known better. Though it was technically S.H.I.E.L.D's job to call the Fantastic Four, Tony couldn't help but get in the way. Especially when it came to Tony giving orders to his 'arch-rival' Reed Richards.

"Fine. Then all you have to do is figure out who did this and fix it," Fury demanded before signing off without another word. The director was almost afraid that if someone spoke another word, they'd all dissolve into an all out war. So instead, he just left with the last word first. Tony groaned.

"How are we supposed to figure out who did this to us?" Tony called. No one spoke for a moment. That's what they had been trying to figure out before calling Fury and it hadn't worked out too well for them before.

"Honestly, I don't think we can," Bruce admitted. Everyone looked to him and he shrugged. "Well, normally the villains give us some sort of clue or some type of explanation as to why they did this. Some huge gloating monologue. But right now, we have nothing. And if it wasn't a villain, then it was usually Tony or myself in the lab doing an experiment. But we weren't. Nor did we have another scientist visiting. So... I can only suggest we wait. Sooner or later, whoever did this will get bored and come gloat."

"You can't expect that to work," Clint complained. He kind-of hated that typical predictable villain-ology that most villains couldn't break away from.

"It is sound reasoning. Exactly like every other villain we have ever faced," Steve commented. Clint scoffed and got up from his seat.

"Whatever, I'm going to the range," the archer muttered. Bruce raised an eyebrow and slowly began to follow. Arrow happily barked. The dog loved chasing after Clint's arrows. Sometimes he was even close enough to the target to reach the arrow and 'retrieve' it for the archer. More times than not though, Arrow damaged the carbon fiber. Clint never complained cause he had the money to fix them but if Arrow damaged too many then the archer might not have enough to fight in the big Avengers' battles.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Natasha wondered, knowing that Bruce didn't have the aim that Clint did. Clint shrugged. He really didn't care what Natasha thought. Right now, he just needed a distraction.

"Don't know, don't care. Range is Hulk-a-fied though so who cares," Clint grunted. Thor glanced down at his hands before slowly looking up.

"May I join you?" Thor wondered. Clint and Bruce paused to look back at the ex-princeling.

"What?" Clint asked. Thor shrugged.

"I knew of many archers in Asgard and once practiced with a bow myself. While I have not used one in many centuries, I wish to try my hand again," Thor said. Clint traded a look with Bruce before shrugging.

"Sure. Why not? Just, any traces of green and get my body out of there," Clint warned. Thor nodded. He knew better than to risk his new (much weaker) body trying to tussle with Hulk. Bruce, while in Steve's body, could handle Hulk. Together the three left without another word to the rest of the group. Steve heaved a sigh and glanced down at his own body before blushing. Natasha chuckled.

"Steve, it's fine if you see my body naked," she reminded. If anything, that made Steve blush even more. Tony and Pepper chuckled.

"Well, it's just..." Steve stuttered. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"What Steve?" She wondered. He got up and walked over to her and whispered something into her ear. Slowly her eyes widened before she chuckled lightly. "I was wondering when I'd start that. Honestly, I'm a few days early. Come on, I'll teach you the wonders of the modern Women's Monthly Time."

Together the two tottered off. Pepper chuckled lightly at Natasha's wording before immediately feeling bad for poor Steve. Natasha's time usually got pretty bad before it got better. Tony groaned, making the CEO look over at him with a curious expression.

"Oh man, the onetime my body gets to see Widow naked and I'm not even in it!" Tony moaned. Pepper quickly smacked him. The genius grunted before smiling down at her and she shuddered at the sight.

"Oh dear lord does that look creepy," Pepper groaned. Tony shrugged. The baby shifted once again inside her stomach, making Pepper grimace and hold her belly. With a grim attitude, she looked over her boyfriend's new body. "I hope you return to normal before our child is born."

"I do too."

* * *

"Come on!" Clint cried, sending another arrow down the lane. For the tenth time in a row, the arrow slid off track and nailed the back wall beside the target. Even Arrow was getting a little upset with his master's shooting. He now was resting close to the door, perking up whenever Clint released a new arrow but not going after it. Grunting, Clint angrily gripped his bow until he heard a crack. Surprised, he glanced down to see the carbon fiber bow had a large hair line crack through its seam.

"You're on the verge of letting Hulk out," a voice warned. It sounded like Steve but spoke like Bruce. Clint turned to see Steve's body walked toward him, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. His own body was slowly backing away, another bow discarded a lane away. Clint sighed, remembering once again that Thor was currently in his own body and that Bruce was currently in Steve's. Arrow whined, slowly beginning to get to his feet.

"Sorry Bruce. I've got it," Clint grunted. Bruce said nothing but stopped walking toward him. Thor stopped retreating. Arrow sat down on his haunches, waiting for what to do next. Sighing deeply, Clint ran a hand through Bruce's hair. It was longer than his own and much coarser. Groaning, Clint looked up again to see the work he had done. All his arrows had missed their target. Glancing down the lane that Thor had set himself up in, Clint noted that Thor had bulls-eyed each arrow he had shot.

"Are you sure you've got control? You've still got a slight minty green skin tone," Bruce commented. Clint sighed and shifted to look at his hands. It was true. His hands were still a little green. Moaning, Clint turned away from the lane and tossed the ruined bow aside. He must have tossed a bit too hard as the bow shattered against the wall. Clint winced. "Clint?"

"No! No Bruce, I'm not fucking sure!" Clint finally snapped at the doctor, his skin turning a shade darker. Bruce held his hands up a bit higher. Thor backed up another step toward the door. Arrow fully got his feet and began pacing in front of the door. Hulk roared in Clint's head, making the archer back away from Bruce and groan. Clint held onto his head.

"Clint, don't fight him. He'll only get madder," Bruce cautioned. Clint nodded, trying to welcome Hulk to come forward but not allowing the green guy loose. Hulk inched his way into further control, growing Clint's muscles enough to crack a bone. The archer cried out in pain, losing the battle for a second. Bruce winced, knowing that Clint was about to give in. He waved a hand back at Thor. Thor nodded and slipped out of the range with Arrow hot on his heels, pressing a button on the door to lock Bruce and Clint inside. JARVIS enacted Hulk protocols. The alarm blared outside but was barely heard in the range. "Clint, I know it hurts, just give in."

"No," Clint growled, sounding more like Hulk than anything. Bruce winced again, wondering if that's how he sounded each time he transformed. More cracks echoed throughout the range as Hulk took more control away from Clint and changed Bruce's old body. Clint screamed in agony.

"Clint, please. Just let go," Bruce begged, knowing that there was no going back from this point. Hulk was coming. Any fighting that Clint was giving right now to stop Hulk was just going to hurt the poor archer. Bruce bit his lip as he watched Clint fight and scream and suffer in horrible pain as Hulk slowly ripped his way free. Once done, Hulk sat there heaving great breaths of air. A minute later, Bruce heard a keening whine.

"Want puny Banner back," Hulk moaned, slowly looking up toward Bruce. Bruce sighed and walked over toward Hulk before getting on his knees and patting the green giant on his shoulder.

"I know buddy. I know," Bruce muttered. Hulk grumbled lightly before resting his head on the floor. "I really never thought I'd say this, but I miss you too."

Hulk gave off another pitiful moan before he slowly began shrinking away again. Within seconds Bruce's body was back to normal but Bruce could tell that Clint's consciousness hadn't returned with it. Fighting Hulk back as hard as he had, Clint must have knocked himself out and Hulk had willingly backed off this time. Smiling lightly, Bruce easily lifted his smaller body off the floor and began the long trek from the archery range up toward the medical floor. Thor already had JARVIS unlocking the range and was waiting to help transport the unconscious archer. Arrow patiently waited at Thor's side, unsure what to make of the whole scene.

* * *

"Yeah, 'I can totally keep my cool'! That's what he said! That's what he promised! But did he? Oh no, first thing he did was Hulk out!" Tony snapped as soon as Arrow, Bruce and Thor stepped out of the elevator with Clint still out cold on the medical floor. Pepper, who had been having some Braxton Hicks contractions only minutes prior, and Tony (and a medical team), was waiting for them. JARVIS had warned the group of the arrival of the other Avengers as soon as the AI was aware of the situation himself.

"The situation was contained. I doubt Fury is even aware of it," Bruce commented, gently placing the still unconscious Clint on a empty bed far away from the worried looking Pepper and medical staff. The medical wing in Avengers Tower was admittedly one huge room with only curtains separating each bed as normally only one Avenger tended to need a bed at a time and if more than one Avenger needed a bed, they all wanted to be able to see each other anyways. But in this instance, one could tell that Pepper and the medical team checking on Pepper would have loved to have a Hulk proof wall separating them from the sleeping Clint.

"Doesn't matter if Fury is aware of it or not! Clint promised he had Hulk contained!" Tony cried, tossing his hands in the air. Not used to his now bigger bulky body, he caught a heavily laden tray of medical supplies and launched it at Bruce and Thor. Both expertly dodged the objects. Tony winced; glad that he didn't send the tray toward Pepper and the medical team. "Sorry."

"It's fine, but Tony, we all have to get used to our new bodies. There will be a long adjustment period," Bruce counseled. Tony groaned and rubbed his face. A quick glance toward Pepper, and then Tony was looking at Bruce again.

"I get that, I do. But we can't afford it," Tony mentioned, waving his hand toward Pepper. "She's ready to pop any day now!"

"I know. And I'm sorry, but there is nothing we can do about that," Bruce calmly stated. Pepper wrapped her arms around her chest at Bruce's words. He was right, until they knew who or what caused this, there was no way to fix it. The doctor on Pepper's case frowned as he looked over the equipment monitoring the woman and baby.

"Stress is not good for her or the baby," the doctor suddenly called, pointedly looking over the gathered Avengers. Bruce nodded. He knew as much and didn't want to do this discussion here, but Tony started it.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"I shall hasten to the mess hall," Thor mumbled, quickly exiting as if he was the main problem for Pepper's stress. Arrow trotted after but stopped in the hall before turning back and sitting down outside the door but looking in. The doctor nodded at Thor's disappearance before focusing on Tony and Bruce. Bruce pointed to Clint and Tony pointed to Pepper, both using the other as their main excuse for staying. The doctor tossed his hands into the air in frustration at them before focusing on his patients. Tony looked back to Bruce.

"Keep him under control," Tony warned. Bruce's eyes narrowed as Pepper's head shot up in shock. This was a totally different reaction from when the genius was on the phone with Fury. In fact, Tony had defended Clint's right to stay in the tower. What could have changed the man's mind? She felt another faux contraction and realized. When these first hit, they had enough time to call the doctors before JARVIS set off the alarm that Clint had released Hulk. It had been a trying minute or so as Tony freaked out wondering if the range was really up to Hulk rampage standards and if Pepper should try and deliver upstairs if that's what she needed or should she go to a hospital (not her first choice).

"Are you threatening him?" Bruce wondered. Tony's eyes narrowed as he considered the implications of his next words. He hadn't thought much about Clint holding Hulk back. In fact, he had trusted Clint to keep his word before. But now, Tony wasn't as positive that Clint could hold the green guy back. And if that was the case, Pepper and the baby were in danger.

"If I have to, yes. My family comes first," Tony declared. Bruce growled, for the first time since being released from Hulk, feeling free enough to use anger. He threateningly took a step forward. Tony, knowing he was in Thor's body and could handle Steve's body's strength, stepped forward as well. Arrow whined from the doorway, unsure what was happening. The pup's whine drew Pepper's attention to the scene. She frowned but before she could comment, her doctor drew the sheets over the sight, blocking her.

"Clint is your family, remember? Barton-Stark?" Bruce reminded. Tony's eyes widened a fraction, glancing toward Clint for a moment before focusing on Bruce. What he was going to say next was going to hurt, but something that Tony sadly believed Clint felt anyways. Unbeknownst to him, Clint actually loved being a Barton-Stark. Clint just wasn't sure if Tony was more his father figure or brother.

"It's just a paper."

"I'll be sure to tell him that when he wakes."

* * *

 **5417 words this chapter. Now, normally I try to post every Friday... Sadly I could not do that this week and I most likely won't do it next week either as I have so much going on. Our boiler (which is less than five years old) decided to break and the company that had it installed will only keep the warrenty valid to the builders of our house as those people had said they owned and lived in the property at the time. So, we are installing a new boiler for like $8000. Never mind all that, we also are finally getting Toddler Clint into seeing behavioral specialists, a neurologist, asthma docs and a brand new dentist. Plus I still have my appointments for the new baby. Which, I'm not sure if I really stated but it's going to be another boy, Darius, born about June 6th. And yes, we are praying for the date of 6-6-16, lol.**

 **Anywho, I think that's all I got to say for this chapter. But thank you to everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed on my older stories on the old page. And thank you to all who favorited and followed me personally. It means a lot to have this kind of support.**

* * *

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 _sammygirl1963_ \- Glad you like it. Sorry that I didn't have this posted sooner. I should have just given up in January and posted on this page. Thanks and yeah, my new little guy is happily kicking away as I type this. I'm beginning to feel like this boy is going to be constantly active once born. lol


	3. Chapter 3

"I put that where?" Steve (as Natasha) repeated once again. Natasha (as Tony) chuckled, placing the tampon down on the counter. She had assumed that this was going to too far but tampons were usually always her choice during her time. Pepper tended toward the other end. Why they did, neither woman really contemplated. They just chose that way. Figuring that Steve was in her body, Natasha was going to go with her body's natural preference. Judging by Steve's face, he disagreed.

"It goes between the legs in a little slit, called the vagina. That's the area that's rapidly leaking blood by the way," Natasha joked, going to cross her arms over her chest before stopping when she felt a sudden pull on the area. Since being in Tony's body, Natasha has noted a constant ache that seemed to surround the arc reactor. If she wasn't currently dealing with Steve and his sudden feminine issue, Natasha would have been speaking to Tony about it.

Steve furiously blushed at Natasha's blunt statement. It was times like this that he missed being in the 40s. Women never seemed to act so brashly and certainly were not this open with issues. Course as he glanced down at his body, he realized that Natasha was currently playing her role up rather well. If he was speaking to Tony about this same issue, Steve wouldn't have been surprised to hear the same words.

"Please stop blushing. It's obscene and really wrong on my body," Natasha snorted, rummaging around her floor's bathroom for any other object that Steve could use to help stop the bleeding. Steve paused before looking to the spy.

"Blushing isn't obscene," he objected. Natasha gave him a side long glare even as she dug through a cabinet. He frowned. Thinking back on all the times he blushed in the past, she had never had an issue. He couldn't figure out why now was. "You never seemed to mind when I was doing it before."

"That was in your body and it was cute. Now, it looks wrong and... Just wrong," Natasha stated, finally finding pads from a long ago age of when she had to use them during a time when she had a back injury and couldn't lean over far enough to... Well, you get the gist. Natasha turned back and handed the package over to Steve. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"What do I do with this?" he wondered. She snorted.

"You open it, move your underwear down, put the sticky side down on where you estimate the most bleeding is, and pull back up your underwear. Then pray you judged right until you bleed enough to check. Wait a few hours and come back and do it all over again," Natasha replied before patting her old body's shoulder and moving to walk away.

"That's seriously it?" Steve asked, his voice squeaking in surprise. Natasha chuckled, missing when she was so naive.

"Pray, you got it right on first go. Pray, the pad doesn't fold up on you and you bleed around it. Pray, you don't bleed faster than you can get to changing it. And overall, just pray that the blood doesn't show through whatever bottoms you wear," Natasha warned. Steve glanced down at the light blue shorts he had chosen to wear earlier that morning. As she had once mistakenly worn those shorts during one of these weeks and had gone on a mission where she couldn't change her tampon in time, she knew how well a bleed stain showed up. Steve was still gaping at the area by the time Natasha closed the bathroom door and sat down on her bed. A sudden jolt made her rub her around the arc reactor. She really needed to talk to Tony, soon.

"Natasha... I thought you had white underwear on this morning!" Steve suddenly called from the bathroom. Natasha groaned, getting up and heading toward her dresser. She had indeed been wearing white. "Oh... I see what you mean by the stain doesn't show through..."

* * *

"WHY AM I SO HUNGRY?" Tony (as Thor) boomed, stomping down the hall. Still not used to his larger frame, Tony was walking around like he normally did in his own body. Bruce (as Steve) and Thor (as Clint) winced before trading looks. The duo had been in the kitchen talking about the situation they had dealt with earlier. Arrow had decided to sit and guard outside the medical wing and no one could convince the dog to move, not even to go to the bathroom.

"Do I always sound so loud?" Thor wondered with a hint of surprise. Bruce glanced over at Tony before slowly nodding. Thor frowned. He had been told that many times over but had never believed anyone. On Asgard it was typical to talk loudly, but then again, on Asgard, the rooms were typically bigger and filled with more people. Now, in Clint's body, he could really hear the difference. Well, actually it was more that the hearing aids that Thor remembered Clint had squealed loudly when Tony spoke. If that normally happened, Thor would have to remind himself to be more cautious when speaking. The squeal was painful indeed. It was no wonder that Clint tended to wince when the thunderer first entered a room.

"Tony, your metabolism is faster. You need to eat more food... Actually, you need to eat food period. Your old way isn't going to sustain Thor's body," Bruce warned, moving to stop the genius from heading into the living room. Tony looked down at his much larger frame before sighing.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about my good looks," the genius muttered before wandering over to the kitchen to find something. Thor, who had been in the process of getting his own meal, handed over a box of Pop Tarts. Tony looked at it as if it was poisoned or diseased. Bruce chuckled, returning to the meal he had prepared before (a turkey sandwich with double meat and cheese). Thankfully, Bruce and Steve tended to have a lot of the same taste preference.

"I find these delectable. Might you wish to try some?" Thor pressed. Tony usually refused them and claimed that he was watching his figure. It was actually always his go-to response when he didn't want to eat something. Including healthy foods. Coffee, that green shake/slime concoction, sometimes shawarma, pizza and alcohol was basically the limit of Tony's diet. Somehow that seemed to work well for the genius. Not a healthy diet to say the least (even though the green shake consisted of nearly all of Tony's nutrients in one go) and certainly not going to sustain Tony now. Things needed to change. Tony glanced over at Bruce for help. Bruce just smiled lightly.

"Go on. Might as well give it a chance," Bruce hedged. Frowning at the fact that he was basically tricked, Tony reached over and grabbed the box. When nothing happened like it exploding, or Tony instantly gaining five pounds of fat, the genius slowly opened it. Cautiously, he pulled out a silver package and stared at it as if he had no idea what this item was.

Everyone had seen Thor go through an entire box of twelve packages of Pop Tarts in one sitting. 24 pop tarts and he never gained a pound. Never mind the other items he had eaten that same day. A tub of ice cream, two large pizzas, numerous types of candies and chocolates, a fully roasted chicken, two party platters of sandwiches, and three pounds of bacon. Again, not a pound. So Tony had nothing to worry about this go round, but those mental habits seem to die hard.

As if the Pop Tarts would pull a 'Michael Bay,' Tony carefully unsealed the package. Thor had handed over a strawberry type. The first type that the thunderer had ever tried (not that Tony and Bruce knew that). Gently, Tony lifted one of the tarts out of the silver wrapping and stared at it. Heaving a great sigh, he looked to the others.

"Well, if I die, at least my body lives on," Tony joked as he raised the pop tarts high and took a small bite of it. Bruce frowned, looking away as he thought over what the genius said. Tony's eyes widened before he took another bite, much larger this time. Within seconds, the first pop tart was shoved into Tony's mouth. He stared hard at Thor as he spoke with a mouth full. "This is amazing! Why have I never had this before?"

Within a matter of a few more seconds, Tony had down the second pop tart and was quickly working on opening another package. Thor chuckled as he reached for his own package of pop tarts (unknowing that Clint actually despised the strawberry version). Bruce focused back in on the duo in time to see Tony shoving a third pop tart into his mouth and Thor about to bite into his own. All train of thought was lost at the image he saw.

"You know, I should have thought this through a bit better. Pop tarts really aren't good for you," the doctor muttered just before Thor suddenly spluttered and spit out his bite of pop tart.

"Ugh! Something is wrong with this. It tastes nothing like the tarts I am used too," Thor declared, placing the offending pop tart aside. Tony, not even thinking about it, reached over and grabbed it. He popped it into his mouth just like Thor would have normally done. Both Bruce and Thor just stared at the genius.

"No'fin' seems wrong," Tony stated, spitting out bits of pop tart as he spoke. Thor looked over to Bruce who just shrugged. The doc chuckled lightly at Thor's disgusted face. That was basically how they all felt when Thor did what Tony just did. Behind them, the elevator dinged, signaling that someone had arrived.

"I'm just saying. It seems strange that those are the only choices," Natasha's voice echoed down the hall. Someone snorted in agreement.

"I understand but that's all you get," Tony's voice answered back before the duo rounded the corner. At first, neither seemed too distracted by the scene in the kitchen until both remembered the change in the group. They focused on Thor's body, then Steve's body and finally on Clint's.

"Clint doesn't like strawberry pop tarts. He prefers cherry," Natasha (as Tony) mentioned, nodding her head toward the thunderer in the archer's body. Thor glanced down at the remaining pop tart before him as if it somehow had failed him. This was going to be an experiment for them all as they learned what each other preferred and didn't prefer.

"I did not know this," Thor moped before getting up to search his rather large cupboard completely full of Pop Tarts. It was usually restocked every Thursday. Sometimes every Thursday and Monday if Thor stayed the weekend and there were no missions but usually just the once a week. The others tended to stay away from the tasty treats when the thunderer was on Midgard but since he began staying around for longer periods of time it got harder and harder for them all to do.

"He doesn't usually eat them. Once in a blue moon type of thing," Natasha replied, forgetting who she was speaking too.

"Shall I wait until this 'blue moon' or has it already commenced?" Thor quizzed. Natasha blinked in confusion a few times before realizing that Thor was completely serious. Bruce smiled while Steve looked away to hide his chuckle. Tony just out right laughed. They all knew better than to use loose terminology such as that but it was so engrained that it was hard to forget.

"That's a figure of speech. It means, Clint rarely has pop tarts," Bruce mentioned before Natasha could say anything. Thor nodded as he sat down with a new box of cherry pop tarts in his hands. Natasha quickly snatched it, opened it, grabbed one package and handed that to Thor before moving to return the rest of the box to the cupboard.

"He also only eats one package at a time otherwise he gets sick," she cautioned. Thor's eyes widened in horror as if the whole idea seemed bizarre or unknown to him.

"They sicken him?" the thunderer probed, uncertain if he should continue on with eating even the one package. Natasha nodded.

"Don't eat too much. Clint gains weight really easily," she added. Thor pushed the package away, pale. Steve chuckled while Tony laughed again. Bruce just shook his head and looked to the spy.

"Don't scare him," Bruce scowled. Natasha shrugged as she moved to the fridge and grabbed a green slurry mix that Tony had previously made the day before. She made a mental note to either ask JARVIS or Tony how to make more. Popping open the top of the drink container, she took a sip and was surprised to find it tasted rather good. A lot like a cucumber or something. Some sort of vegetable.

"Not trying to scare him, stating facts about Clint. Facts that Thor needs to know," Natasha casually mentioned before turning back to the fridge and grabbing an apple before turning back. She tossed it toward Steve without a word. Surprised, the captain barely caught it before it hit his face. "I tend to mostly eat fruits and vegetables. Carbs and I don't mix well so limit them. Meats are fine, but keep it redder rather than 'well done'. Stick to waters. I can't handle milk, makes me gassy. Alcohol is fine, I've got a high tolerance."

Steve said nothing as he stared at her. She continued listing a few other details but his mind didn't really focus on them. Instead, he focused on the apple. His stomach grumbled but he didn't feel hungry. In fact, looking at the apple made him feel a little ill. Gently, he placed the apple down on the kitchen island before him. He'd find something to eat later.

"Well?" someone asked. Steve looked up, focusing on the group once again. They were all staring at him.

"Hmm?"

"We asked if you had any details about yourself that we didn't know that you wanted to share for Bruce," Tony remarked, cleaning some pop tart crumbs off the front of his shirt. Steve glanced over at Bruce.

"Uh..." Steve eloquently answered. Bruce chuckled before moving toward the captain and gently placing a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"Don't worry. As weird as this sounds, I studied you greatly when I was trying to learn about the super soldier serum. I think I know about your personal preferences in food," the doc joked. Steve smiled, unsure if he should find this fact humorous or frightening to some degree.

"Excuse me for the interruption but, Miss Potts and the medical staff downstairs would like to inform Dr. Banner that Agent Barton appears to be waking. They fear that it may not be Agent Barton in control," JARVIS declared into the room. Natasha focused on Bruce. While she had been in her room with Steve, JARVIS hadn't alerted them to Clint losing control. She had requested that personally for her room as she felt hearing the alarm would cause her more issues.

"What happened to Clint?" she demanded.

"Clint Hulk-ed out in the archery range," Bruce replied before moving toward the elevator. Tony and Steve were close on his heels. Natasha and Thor traded a look before they both quickly followed after.

"Clint 'Hulk-ed' out and no one told me?" Natasha snapped. Bruce nodded as the elevator arrived and the group boarded. "Why wasn't I told?"

"Didn't think about it?" Bruce guessed, trying to think back on why it never crossed his mind to let the spy know about Clint. Natasha stared at Bruce. Her normal 'deadly' glare didn't seem to work while trapped in Tony's body but it was effective enough to make Bruce feel guilty. He shrugged and sheepishly looked away. Natasha snorted as the elevator dinged and opened. The group got off to meet with the head doctor on Pepper's case. Arrow perked up at the sight of them and followed inside.

"He started groaning a minute ago and his pulse is rising. Miss Potts mentioned something about Hulk being controlled by pulse, so I figured it best to call," the man mentioned. Bruce nodded and walked past everyone to get to Clint's side first. While being a doctor and the head on Clint's case currently, he was also the only one who knew how best to deal with Hulk.

"Did you ever think he might just be waking up?" Natasha growled, pissed that Clint was getting the same treatment that Bruce had first gotten when Hulk originally arrived. The doctor concurred as the group entered into the medical wing but then he pointed to the pregnant Pepper on the other side of the room.

"I did, but I couldn't risk the other guy coming around with Miss Potts down here," the man stated as he returned to her side. He had kept her down in the medical wing as the Braxton Hicks contractions were still going on and he wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to shift into actual labor. She wasn't allowed to leave until they stopped for at least an hour solid.

"It's probably best that he wakes to familiar faces anyways," Bruce added as he checked over the machines that he had hooked over Clint before he left earlier that night. Indeed, Clint's pulse was beginning to quicken but it wasn't that he was showing signs of waking. It was signs that Clint was dreaming... He was having a nightmare... "Oh... This is not good... Not good at all."

"What? What is happening?" Steve wondered. Bruce glanced back at the group, his eyes focusing on Tony.

"Clint is dreaming," Bruce whispered, fearing the next words he'd have to say.

"So," Tony started to say. Bruce shook his head.

"He's having a nightmare," Bruce continued. For a second silence followed as the other Avengers processed this information. Normally, such thing would just be sad news to hear. Who knew what the archer could be dreaming about? There were so many possibilities, each as horrible as the next. But right now, with Clint inside Bruce's body... "We have to get him into Hulk's room."

* * *

It was determined that Bruce would go ahead of the group and prepare Hulk's room to the exact way that the green guy liked it. Natasha, Steve and Thor would escort Clint down with some of the medical team that was on stand-by with Pepper. Tony would stay with Pepper as a just in case Clint Hulk-ed out before reaching the room and they needed to evacuate. The rest of the medical team was already working on packing up and preparing for such an event as a just in case.

"Bruce, are you ready for us?" Tony's voice called out suddenly. Bruce turned around to see the large group waiting in the main viewing area. Clint was still out cold on the table but now he was strapped down. It looked as if he had thrashed a bit in transit but not enough to look like he tried to wake and escape or anything. The monitor reading his pulse still showed it was elevated but there was no sign of Hulk. Bruce frowned at that but didn't comment. Instead, he nodded his head.

The group entered. Well, most of the group entered. Steve, Natasha and Thor all pushed Clint into the room and the medical staff waited in the viewing room. One of the staff held onto Arrow's collar as the dog tried to enter as well. The pup barked, yipped and fought to get into the room with his master. Once Clint was inside, Thor backed away to the viewing room, tapping Steve's arm as he did so. Normally, Steve and Thor waited with Bruce until the last second but considering the fact that he was in a much frailer body than his own, it might be safer waiting outside. Steve quickly took over watching Arrow. The pup calmed considerably at a familiar presence but still fought to get in the room with Clint. Natasha glanced at the duo, glad that they were both understanding that their new bodies were limited compared to their old ones. She glanced at her own. As Tony, she was still fragile.

"I'll unhook him, go wait outside, in case," Bruce ordered, stopping what he was doing and heading over to Clint. To be honest, he always got a sense that Hulk didn't like his room prepared any sort of way anyhow. Natasha nodded and with a sigh, turned and rushed out of the room. Once she passed the door, Bruce heard it close and click shut. He glanced over to note that Natasha was waiting by it, ready to open it the second he had to give in and leave Clint behind as well. Bruce nodded. "Okay, Clint. Let's do this."

Quickly, Bruce unstrapped the archer so that Clint wouldn't even know that he had been strapped down. Tossing the straps aside, Bruce made it so that even if Clint Hulk-ed out, Hulk wouldn't be likely to see the straps either. Both would have a natural bad reaction to finding out about being forced to strapped down to the bed. And considering Bruce wanted to try and coax Clint into calming down if he woke or to calm Hulk into letting Clint be in control, letting either see the restraints would be bad.

Clint groaned. The first sound he had made since Bruce had first realized that the archer was having a nightmare and demanded to move him. For a moment, the noise gave the doctor pause as he wondered what was going to happen next. Was Clint actually waking? Was Hulk taking over? Bruce glanced at the monitor. Still, Clint's pulse was rising. A scan of his body showed no signs of green. So, no Hulk. What was going on? Could Clint actually be having a nightmare and be fighting Hulk's change at the same time? Or... Or could Hulk have finally learned the difference? After all these years?

"Sir wishes to know how it is going with Agent Barton," JARVIS called into the room so loudly that Bruce jumped. Sheepishly, Bruce looked over to the viewing area. Steve had a small smile on his face. Thor looked to be laughing or chuckling. Natasha was shaking her head. And the medical team had left at some point. Arrow was focused on Clint's form and he was on two feet, looking over the wall under the window.

"Clint is still having issues with a rising pulse but..." here he paused. There was no real way to explain what he was seeing. It was almost impossible to believe it. Sighing, Bruce rubbed his face, suddenly missing the distraction of his glasses. "There is no trace of Hulk."

"Sir wishes to be informed right away," JARVIS intoned. Bruce bristled at that before glancing up and suddenly forgetting that Hulk's room had a speaker that worked two ways. The others could currently hear what he was saying.

"So he can give Fury permission to lock Clint away? Yeah, I don't think so," Bruce snapped.

"What?" Tony's voice growled through the speaker. Bruce was used to hearing people speak to him from the other side. The crackle of the speaker was familiar. He glanced back to the viewing room to see Natasha (as Tony) glaring angrily at him. It was here that he realized what he had said and what he had neglected to tell the spy. What he had neglected to tell everyone. Only Tony and Bruce (and Pepper) knew of that conversation.

"I'll explain later," Bruce begged, not wanting to get into it now when Hulk could suddenly arrive behind him. Natasha narrowed her eyes in anger. A quick glance to see if Thor or Steve could help, reminded Bruce that only he and Tony knew of the conversation about kicking Clint out of the tower is the archer Hulk-ed out again.

"You damn well better," she snarled. Bruce winced; half wishing that Clint would give into Hulk so that the green guy could kill him. Admittedly he'd feel bad for destroying Steve's body and briefly wondered if Steve would die as well. But his other half wished that Tony would use JARVIS to explain his reasoning for what he had said.

For the entire rest of the night, that was how the Avengers stayed. Tony upstairs with Pepper in the medical wing, waiting for her faux contractions to end or news that Hulk was loose and they needed to leave. The medical staff wondering if they were going to be used or if they had packed for nothing. Natasha seething in anger as she wondered if it was Bruce who would die first or Tony when either man explained what she had missed. Steve and Thor blissfully unaware that their team may be falling apart at the seams as they waited for a teammate to possibly lose his cool. Arrow looking into the room that his master was trapped in while he was not allowed in to help. Bruce sitting by Clint's side in the Hulk-out room, wondering, waiting for the moment when he'd be needed. And poor Clint lying on the hospital bed. Dreaming away but apparently never Hulk-ing out. The next morning, no one was really prepared for what happened.

"Excuse me," JARVIS called out to everyone at once, even though they were all separated by floors. Pepper was currently getting checked over by her doctor. She had finally just stopped having contractions and the doc was checking to make sure nothing else was wrong before releasing her. Clint was on the verge of waking but at the AI's voice, snorted awake so fast, Bruce jumped to his feet and would have Hulk-ed out himself had Hulk transferred over with him. Natasha, Steve and Thor even jumped to their feet in surprise. Arrow barked in excitement and began pawing at the door to the Hulk-out chamber.

"What is it J?" came Thor's voice over JARVIS's speakers. The AI was smart enough to connect each room so that everyone could hear each other.

"It seems that someone has broken into the tower last night and is currently on the common floor," JARVIS calmly stated as if this was an everyday situation, which it kind of was. But usually JARVIS had a better warning system in place.

"What?" Natasha's voice demanded in such a military tone that Clint nearly jumped to attention. He glanced over at the viewing area to see Steve was looking toward JARVIS's nearest camera. Bruce gently smacked Clint's nose.

"Ow," the archer whispered, looking back to Bruce. "What?"

"Focus on me and not on their conversation about the apparent intruder," Bruce ordered. Clint frowned but did as told and focused more on Bruce. Though half his brain did focus on the topic of conversation around him.

"How could someone have broken in without you knowing?" Tony's voice questioned. Clint looked up again to see Natasha had her hands on her hips and most likely was tapping her foot. An odd combination for Tony's body, but completely natural for her. Bruce tapped his nose again. Clint snorted. "Don't you have sensors for this sort of thing?"

"This intruder does not have normal characteristics that my sensors could trace," JARVIS replied. There was a long pause as everyone debated what this meant. "Back tracing when these anomalies first appeared, I find that the intruder arrived during Stark Industries hours last night and snuck into Avengers Tower area sometime around 1 am. I did not fully sense its presence until 6:23 am and I alerted you all at 6:25 am."

"I'm gonna go see who it is," Thor's voice declared.

"Tony! No! Wait for the rest of us! Bruce is checking on Clint right now," Natasha's voice basically screeched as Steve tried to order Tony to stay with Pepper.

"Clint is good to go. I'm going to give him my old heart rate monitor that will give us a head's up. It was never full proof but it's better than nothing," Bruce informed the others as he moved to a hidden panel in the Hulk-out room. Inside were a few items that the doctor had once hidden when he first arrived at the tower. Only he and Tony knew of this hidey hole. Until now. Not that Bruce could see any of the others taking anything from this panel but the less people who know about it, the better.

"Tony, we're coming to you on the medical wing. You better be there when we arrive," Steve warned as Clint and Bruce walked out of the Hulk-out room, pushing the bed between them.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pep won't let me go without you guys," Thor's voice snippily replied. The others chuckled trying to imagine Thor being held back by a very pregnant Pepper Potts. Amazingly enough, it wasn't that hard to picture. Three minutes later, the group arrived on the medical floor to trade the medical bed out for Tony. Arrow was left with Pepper as a just in case. The pup didn't like the idea but after Clint ordered Arrow to stay, the pup sat down. Two minutes after that, the elevator arrived on the common floor. Loud rock music was blaring from the TV. "JARVIS, shut off the TV."

"Yes, Sir," the AI replied before the room went silent.

"Hey!" an unfamiliar voice protested. "I was watching that! Miley Cyrus kicks ass!"

"I know that voice," Clint muttered softly from the back of the group. Considering the high threat of Hulk, they had all agreed that he would be best in the back of the elevator. Hearing the voice of the intruder, he quickly pushed forward. Natasha tried to stop him but she didn't want to raise his pulse and the adrenaline rush of a potential fight already had Bruce's old watch beeping away on his wrist. "Wade Wilson?"

"HAWKY!" the voice cried before a red and black blur vaulted over the living room couch and landed at the end of the hall. He stood there with his arms open wide as if he was preparing to run down the hall and pull Clint into a tight hug but when he spotted who was leading the group, he paused. Then his arms dropped. "Holy shit. It worked."

* * *

 **5118 words this time around. Thankfully this chapter came out after the new movie. Helped me with writing this newly introduced character. Hope everyone likes him and I promise he won't be as bad mouthed as in the movie but he'll let a few slip, lol.**

 **So, this week had been going well. Went through doctors appointments so fast it was kind of like 'did we even go?' Found out little Darius is currently breach. Which is fine, he still has some time to correct himself, not that it matters cause I am planning on a c-section anyways. Yesterday went to Boston Children's Hospital to see a neurosurgeon. We really didn't need the appointment as nothing is wrong with Little Clint's head surgery wise but the neuro departments are so connected that when you see one, you have to see the other no matter what. So, waist of time but felt good knowing that Little Clint shouldn't have to deal with any head surgeries anytime soon. Then after all that, Little Clint got sick last night. We were hoping that it was just something he ate and he'd be over with it by mid-morning but... Got sick at his father's doctor's appointment in the morning and then five minutes before we were suppose to leave for his own doctor's appointment. Rescheduled him, went home, Little Clint threw up all over me, took a shower and now I am here, typing away.**

 **Found out something new about my new e-mail account. When I get e-mails about followers or favorites, they are separate but Reviews get grouped together in a 'conversation'. So, I am sorry to amy. d. fuller. 9 and to Rebel-Keiki for not responding to your reviews. Thank you both very much and hope to hear from you again.**

 **Review Responses:**

 **Favorite** : LoverShadowGirl, AltyEx, BeautifullyDamagedSimplyMe, foxgirl224

 **Follower:** LoverShadowGirl, aBlue Gillespian, AltyEx, HEB807, converselover20204, foxgirl224, lone ruler

 **Reviews:**

 _Johncorn_ – Thank you. And the issue that only Thor can wield the hammer? Yes, that will come up. Lol

 _BeautifullyDamagedSimplyMe_ \- Awesome name. And yes, Tony did do a low blow. Thank you.

 _sammygirl1963_ – Well, I took that off the various times we see Bruce trying to hold back and I personally believe that Clint would have a stronger mind than the doctor, so he fought harder and thus, the transformation took longer and was more painful. Yes, I love that I have Steve suffering through a monthly time. I was tempted to make Tony go through with it but it just felt better with poor Steve. Not that I want him to suffer but I feel he'd appreciate more than Tony. As for Tony, I felt like being mean at that moment. And that was the best way. Besides, as you said, we also have to look at the fact that Tony is trying to protect Pepper and his unborn child. Can't wait to give you more.

 _ERoc901 Tha Clean Up Man_ – As awesome as the new trailer, wow... What a compliment. Thank you. I'm glad you like Steve in Natasha. I tried to pick the best combinations with the characters and per me, Clint had to have the brunt of the pain, lol. I'll see what I can do about reading your story as well. Personally, I'm not much into Spider-Man stories but I'll give it a shot.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ – Thank you and no problem. I love writing and it helps clear my mind with everything going on, lol. I'm sorry you're having a hard time keeping track of who is in whose body. Basically it's broken down like this Bruce=Steve=Natasha=Tony=Thor=Clint=Bruce. Hope that helps. I know I have a sheet of paper beside me when I write that reminds me who is who. With Clint trying to shoot, I loved writing that scene and having Clint fail. And muscle memory is something that will be brought up in later chapters. These beginning chapters were fun to write with how different each Avenger is on their own and now putting their normal day to day problems on another one is fun. (if you get what I mean, lol) Thank you for the thoughts and I love Darius. Actually if I ever get published, that name is the name of one of the main characters. Besides, now my family is the beginning of the alphabet (A=me, B=my husband, C=of course, Clint and now D= Darius).


	4. Chapter 4

"What the hell do you mean, 'it worked?'" Clint (as Bruce) snapped angrily. Behind him, Natasha (as Tony) jerked forward to pull the archer back. Not only was it bad that Clint was getting riled up and could potentially release Hulk but one didn't want to upset the insane master assassin and mercenary who apparently did this to them. Natasha sure as heck didn't want to spend forever in the body of Tony Stark. And she was pretty sure the others (outside of maybe Tony) agreed with her sentiment. Seeing as no one tried to stop her, she figured right.

"Who the fuck is this guy?" Tony (as Thor) demanded, waving his hand over the red and black suited 'villain' standing at the end of the hall. This 'Wade Wilson' hadn't moved since seeing Bruce's body leading the pack. In fact, he seemed to be staring intently at him. Almost as if by staring at Bruce's body, Wade could see Clint's soul trapped inside and demanding to be free. It was really creepy. Course Clint wasn't effected at all by Wade's staring. Only the others seemed bothered by it.

"Wade Wilson, a mutant best known as Deadpool," Clint snarled, backing away as he realized that the watch on his wrist was beeping like crazy. Bruce (as Steve) had warned him that the beeping will get louder the closer he gets to releasing Hulk. He needed to get away, right now. Deadpool and Clint had a history that usually never left his blood pressure all that low. And the archer had Hulk-ed out enough for a lifetime in his opinion. If Wade made him do it again, Clint would truly hold that against the other man.

"Deadpool? The merc?" Steve (as Natasha) called, having heard something about the man from a report he had read. A long time ago, when they once worked with the X-Men on a mission... Xavier had been nice enough to give Steve a report on any mutants he may run across. Most of the information was on the team that Xavier was sending with the Avengers but there were mentions of common enemies that the X-Men team faced. Deadpool was included in the list as a 'call out to Xavier and report'. More specifically 'DO NOT ENGANGE!' Thankfully, they never ran into the mutant. Well, never ran into Deadpool until now.

"It's kinda nice to know that people know I'm so dangerous," Wade whispered to something off to his side. The group (outside of Clint and Natasha) stiffened. Clint and Natasha knew of Wade's lack of mental balance and so they weren't concerned with someone hiding in the wings. But the others had no idea. In fact, it freaked them out enough that Wade had slipped past JARVIS's scanners.

"Someone else here?" Tony cried, sounded slightly hysterical. He'd really have to go back and rework JARVIS's system if multiple people had been able to slip into the Tower unnoticed for a long period of time. Clint shook his head. With a sigh, he looked to the others. Consciously knowing that Wade wouldn't attack him. Wade smiled at the archer's confidence in the mercenary's relationship.

"Deadpool is clinically insane. He talks to whoever the fuck he wants to," the archer mentioned. Clint still didn't believe that Wade was hearing voices in his head. And if he did hear voices, why the fuck did Wade think it was a smart idea to talk back to them. Wade chuckled. He often had to correct people on what he was doing.

"I talk to the readers," he corrected, raising a finger and pointing to the sky. Clint looked back over at Wade with a bland, disinterested look. Wade just chuckled again. Thor (as Clint) glanced up as if he could see these 'readers' that Wade was talking about. He assumed that it was maybe much like how he talked to Heimdall. The first time he did that, everyone thought him insane. Till the Bifrost landed on top of him and he was whisked away to Asgard. No one seemed to want to correct him on his error. "Everyone who wanted to continue from the other one. And some new ones too."

"Other one?" Bruce questioned, curious about what was going on in Wade's head. As a scientist and a doctor, Wade was intriguing to the man. While it was obvious there was something wrong in the man's head, Wade seemed to truly believe in what he was saying. And considering the Avenger's history... Bruce wouldn't be surprised if Wade was actually right. Wade pointed toward Bruce's body. Bruce raised an eyebrow.

"His. Most of them are his. Don't know why. This author supposedly likes him too. But tortures him," Wade mumbled, turning around to walk off. Bruce frowned, wondering if Wade meant Clint or himself. But considering all the weird things that have been happening to Clint lately, Bruce figured Wade was talking about the archer. Clint glanced over to the others. He couldn't handle much more of this. Clint literally had a deadline on how much of Wade's insane mind he could handle. While normally it was much longer than this, considering he wasn't himself, Clint figured it'd be best to end the crazy now.

"If you asked my opinion. We call Professor X right now and get Deadpool out of our hair as soon as possible. No matter what he supposedly has done," Clint warned. The faster Wade left, the faster Clint could go back to living in peace. Even if Wade never changed any of them back.

"Well, we haven't had much time to look into what actually happened to us. If he knows, we at least have a stepping stone," Bruce pointed out. Clint shook his head and looked to Natasha for help. She shrugged. Bruce had a point and there was no sense arguing. Besides, it seemed like only Clint was having an issue with the mutant. Clint narrowed his eyes.

"I thought you said mutants wouldn't get involved," he hissed, waving his hand toward Wade who was still wandering around and blabbering on about an author with a small family that named their child after the archer. Clint rolled his eyes. No one would name their kid after him. Tony, Steve and maybe Bruce yeah. But him... No. Never happen. Natasha shook her head as Tony, Steve, Bruce and Thor seemed to carry on their discussion without the assassins (all three).

"Technically we aren't all involved. Just me," Wade murmured back, suddenly right behind the archer. Clint was careful enough to not jump but everyone did catch the heart monitor turn into a sudden rapid beep before relaxing. None of the Avengers mentioned it but Wade glanced down as if noticing it for the first time. Which was strange in and of itself considering it had been going like crazy when the Avengers first spotted him. Wade smiled and grabbed the archer's wrist to get a closer look at it. "Ooh. What's this little gizmo? A heart thingy? Does it go all red when you get close or green? Wait... Green means go so that wouldn't work... But red isn't your color..."

"Wade," Clint interrupted. Wade stopped and focused on the archer. Clint knew that if the mask was off, Wade's expression would be of delighted curiosity. He snarled. "Shut up."

"But don't you want to-" Wade started. Clint narrowed his eyes now.

"Shut up."

"But-"

"Eh," Clint voiced, raising a finger in warning. Wade backed up a bit.

"But-"

"Nope."

"Bu-"

"Stop it."

"Bu-"

"Silence."

"Bu-"

"SHUT UP!" Clint shouted, his skin turning a bit green. Wade quickly backed into a wall before sliding down it to sit on the floor. He then curled into a ball, wrapped an arm around his legs and used the other to faux suck his thumb. Clint just stared. It almost looked like the man was cowering in fear. The archer sighed, quickly getting control over Hulk as the green beast had suddenly taken a liking to Wade. That wasn't a good thing to say the least but at least it made it easier to push Hulk back down.

"That was rude," Natasha mentioned. Clint turned to look at her. She knew better than anyone the dangers of Wade and Clint hanging out together. But right now, she just looked pleased as punch. He narrowed his eyes again, getting angry enough to flash them green at her. She narrowed her eyes back at him, daring him to release Hulk on her.

"You obviously haven't spent a lot of time around Wade Wilson," Clint snapped before focusing on the mutant one last time. Wade hadn't moved. Figuring that Wade wasn't going to move for a bit, Clint turned to face the others. "Look, I honestly can't stand to be around him right now. Call me when your senses return and we've called Professor X."

"Where are you going?" Tony wondered, watching as Clint stalked down the hall toward the elevator. JARVIS smartly already had the doors open and waiting. The watch was beginning to beep again. Clint sighed, staring at it as he walked. His normal places seemed wrong in Bruce's body but he needed to calm down.

"I don't know. Hulk's room, the archery range. Anywhere but here," Clint growled before getting on. As the doors closed, Wade waved. Clint's eyes narrowed but he didn't budge. He was certain that Wade was smiling again under his mask. And didn't that just piss him off even more. The doors closed and off he went.

"Wow. I don't understand why he doesn't like me. I thought I really helped him when we teamed up. Oh wait... Has that happened yet? I can't remember. Does it matter? Do you know what I'm talking about?" Wade asked, looking off into the distance past Clint's body's head. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even pay attention to Natasha moving to stand beside him. Thor spun around to look and see if someone was behind him. No one was there.

"I do not understand to whom you speak to," Thor grumbled, turning back to look at Wade. The mutant focused on the thunderer for the first time. Thor didn't seem to care. "No one is there."

"You. You took Hawky's body. Hmm. Yup, should have expected that. Forgot you in the mix," Wade muttered, thinking about his plans. Bruce kneeled down to get closer to Wade, who was still sitting on the floor. Tony and Steve backed off, assuming that the doctor had the situation handled.

"What do you mean by that?" Bruce questioned before Wade could go onto another random tangent that no one could understand. Wade looked to the doctor.

"I had a picture. Of the Avengers in my head from a story I read... No, heard about... Something... You guys all changed costumes," Wade described, confusing himself with the realities. For a moment, no one spoke. It was odd enough that Wade heard a possibility of them changing outfits but what made him think that. Tony, amazingly enough, was the first to see the connection. He glanced over everyone that was left as his mind brought up the memory.

"Halloween," Tony mumbled, his eyes going wide before looking down at himself. Everyone turned to look at him. They had no idea what the genius was talking about. Tony looked back up to see them all staring at him. "Holy shit. Halloween, last year!"

"What are you talking about?" Steve wondered, thinking that maybe Tony had lost his mind. Tony shook his head and pointed to Steve and then the others. Slowly, Natasha began to realize what Tony meant. Then Bruce understood and turned away, cursing under his breath. Thor and Steve still seemed lost. So, Tony recapped for them...

* * *

 _"What did you expect on the day before Halloween?" Bruce grumbled, moving away from helping Clint and searching through the 'Adult' section and on a rack of 'Batman' outfits in an attempt to find his size. "I almost wish that we just dressed in our Avengers uniforms."_

 _"Actually, that is an idea," Pepper started, having grown sick of Tony's constant complaining whenever he attempted to find a good outfit. Tony looked at CEO as if she had betrayed him before growing angry._

 _"No! I forbid it! I refuse to dress in my armor!" the genius cried._

 _"Not in your armor, but what about Thor's? Or Steve's?" Pepper calmly suggested, used to the billionaire blowing up like that. This might actually be interesting now. "I mean, I know everyone tends to dress up as the Avengers now-a-days and you guys are sick of your own gear-"_

 _"I CALL THOR!" Tony interrupted. Thor's frown deepened as he turned to the genius._

 _"I'll take Steve's outfit," Bruce called. "Always did sound cool to hold the shield."_

 _"I'm interested in that Iron Man armor," Natasha said, smirking as her eyes glinted with unhinged glee. "You invited spies into your homes. You can't keep a secret like Rescue for very long."_

 _"Can I be Hulk?" Clint called._

 _"That leaves Clint and Natasha," Pepper pointed out as she focused on Steve and Thor_

 _"I for one have played the woman too many times. Please, Steven, don't make me do it again," Thor pleaded. "What? You have met my brother. Why does such knowledge surprise you?"_

* * *

"Tee hee, Thor as a woman. Though, I did oddly like Loki as Captain America," Wade seriously stated before anyone else had a moment to comment. Steve glanced over at Thor with a raised eyebrow. He had never heard of that before. Why would Loki dress like him? Thor just looked pissed.

"How did you hear of such mockery? We were alone!" Thor declared, jumping toward Wade as if to attack. Wade leaped to his feet, ready to defend himself. Steve shifted to stop Thor along with Bruce but neither laid a hand on the thunderer. Tony chuckled, trying to imagine such a sight. Natasha rolled her eyes, this was why Clint couldn't stand Wade.

"'I feel so patriotic!'" Wade mocked. Thor growled and reared an arm back, ready to punch the mercenary. Before he could, Bruce grabbed his wrist to stop him. He gripped a bit too tightly and everyone hear the creaking of bones. Thor winced and backed off, surprised at the pain. Steve frowned, knowing that Bruce didn't know his body's strength but wished something different could have ended it all. Why did Thor have to get hurt to stop him from attacking the mutant? Natasha and Tony backed away, almost as if they feared what was commencing before them.

"Sorry, but don't hit him," Bruce ordered. Thor snarled before turning and walking away slightly to cool off and cradle his aching wrist. Steve looked over at Bruce before turning to go after Thor. The two began a mostly whispered discussion about what Wade was talking about. Thor seemed to get more riled with each word said and even Steve looked a bit upset. But they didn't attack each other.

"Okay, so you did this based on our Halloween costumes from last year," Natasha confirmed, bringing the conversation back around now that everyone was slightly distracted. Refocused back on the main issue, Wade looked to Natasha.

"Yup. Seemed like a big clue. Almost like screaming it out. Kinda liked it. Liked the idea of Steve being a woman. And the author really likes torturing Clint, hence why he has Hulk. Though again, she really likes him... It makes no sense why Clint tends to get it worse than the rest of you," Wade replied, dissolving into nonsensical talks about a stupid author and her random evil ideas. Natasha rolled her eyes and walked away. There was no good way to get a straight answer out of Wade Wilson. Nothing ever made sense with him. Figuring Natasha had given up, Bruce stepped forward. Tony did as well but a sharp glance from Bruce and Tony re-backed off. As stated to Clint before, it wouldn't be good to upset Wade and Tony was too good at doing that.

"So, if Clint had chosen to dress as Natasha instead, you would have done that?" Bruce pondered, trying to get this straight. Maybe if he could get Wade talking more about why he choose this way, then maybe Bruce could figure out how he did it and how to reverse it. Wade paused. He seemed to be pondering over Bruce's question. Almost as if that would make a good story.

"Don't think so. Not as funny. Now Iron Man as Black Widow, that might be funny. Seeing him trying to look at his naked body while Black Widow tried to stop him. Though, who would she be... The doc? Nah... One yelling fit and mean green all the way... Don't want her super strong... Heck, she might be the same... Ha! Yeah, that's an idea," Wade discussed, dissolving into another plot line entirely. Bruce traded a look with Natasha and Tony. Natasha was glaring at the mutant and Tony seemed rather pleased. A good sign that Wade's new plot line wouldn't work at all. "It totally would to work!"

"I like that idea," Tony muttered, getting quickly smacked by Natasha not even a second later. Bruce shook his head and focused on Wade. At this point, the doctor realized he just needed to ignore the others.

"And the rest of us?" Bruce pressed. Wade focused on the doctor.

"Thor... You would make a good Thor," Wade declared. Bruce nodded, giving the mutant a small encouraging smile. If Bruce could keep this up, Wade might never suspect what he was plotting. Wade didn't seem to care.

"Indeed. And what about Thor? Who would he be?"

"Well, if Hawky was all female... The female was the Iron dude... Iron dude was the female... That leaves Greenie, Sparky and... Mr. Flag Man," Wade decided. He turned to look at Tony. "Unless we involve preggo."

"LEAVE PEPPER OUT OF THIS!" Tony roared, lunging toward Wade so fast that he was almost on top of the mutant before anyone could stop him. Bruce leapt into action right away, grabbing onto Tony to try and pull the genius off. Steve and Thor both jumped to their feet but didn't move into the battle between the trio. Wade laughed hysterically even as he worked to defend himself from Tony's vicious attack. Once Bruce was finally able to pull Tony off of the mutant, Wade dropped to the floor, still laughing while Bruce tried to calm the genius down.

"Oh god, oh goodie!" Wade laughed, ruining Bruce's attempt to calm Tony. The genius lunged forward in the doctor's arms but didn't get far. Bruce had a good grip and didn't let him move. Just a testament to how well Steve's body could handle Thor's. Course, neither man seemed to really be giving it their all. Almost as if both feared injuring the other. "That was fun. No mention of the chickie, chick."

"You touch a hair on Pepper's head, I'll kill you!" Tony threatened. This time it wasn't Wade that laughed at the man. Natasha did. Though when Tony, Bruce, Steve and Thor turned to look at her, she didn't look please. She mostly looked aggravated.

"Good luck. A lot of people have tried. Wilson's mutation is accelerated healing. He can't die," Natasha mentioned. Tony frowned. He should have known that. How come he didn't know that before?

"Been drowned a lot. Been shot a lot. Got stabbed, beheaded I think... And a bunch of other things. Nothings stuck, except my ugly mug," Wade chuckled, finally removing his mask to show the group what his face looked like. Tony reared back in revulsion and surprise. Bruce gasped, stunned at the amount of damage that had been done to the man's face. Steve's mouth dropped open as he blinked rapidly. He seemed to be trying to adjust his eyes, as if that would change the image somehow. Thor looked to the ground, having seen many things similar or even worse in his long life. Natasha had seen if before and gave no reaction. "Purty, ain't it?"

"Jeez, a weed whacker not take a shining to you or something?" Tony snarled, finally looking away. His stomach turned and he forced himself to hold down whatever Thor last ate. And the pop tarts he devoured earlier. Wade chuckled even as he replaced the mask. It was easier to talk to people with the mask on until they really got used to him. If Clint was here, Wade more than likely would have stayed mask less.

"Have to remember that one. Don't think I got killed by a weed whacker," the mutant joked. Tony shuddered. Not remembering the many and various types of ways one had died didn't sound very pleasant. Never mind being able to joke about it afterwards. Something had really snapped in Wade's mind.

"What did you use to do this?" Natasha wondered, yet again bringing the conversation back around to the main point of Wade being in Avengers Tower. Wade looked to her. The lower half of his mask shifted, a sign that he was smiling. Bruce glanced over at the spy as well, half praying that Wade would answer and half hoping that Natasha didn't ruin whatever he had started with the mutant.

"Some bluish rock thingy. I think it's important," Wade stated. Natasha raised an eyebrow and waited a moment as if expecting Wade to take it out and show her. He tilted his head. Then even as he chuckled, he told her; "You think I'm stupid enough to bring it with me? I changed you all against your will. If I brought it with me, you'd kill me!"

"So, you hid it? Where?" Natasha snarled. Wade paused. Natasha waited a beat before understanding why Wade had paused. He wasn't wasting time now. For some unknown reason, he was honestly thinking about what he did with the stone. That upset the spy even more. "Don't tell me you forgot!"

"Oops. Plot hole," Wade replied, smirking. Natasha shook her head. Not only had he used the wrong term, but their lives weren't a story. If it was, Natasha would have found the damned author by now and killed them. Clint would more than likely be first in line, but Natasha would be by his side, helping. Even if this author was supposedly a mother and named her son after the archer, Natasha didn't care...

"Device," Steve whispered, drawing attention to himself in surprise. Wade turned to him much slower than the others.

"What?"

"Plot device... Plot hole is an error. You leaving the item that did this isn't a mistake. If you brought it, that might be a plot hole. What you did is a plot device. You're moving the story along. By not bringing the item, we now have to find it while still being stuck like this," Steve answered. After a moment, Tony shook his head. The movement made Steve look over at the genius.

"Seriously?" Tony questioned. Steve glanced over at him. "That's your issue? Not that fact that HE DIDN'T FUCKING BRING IT!?"

"I assumed he didn't from the minute JARVIS stated someone arrived. Thor mentioned that it took a lot of mystical energy to do something like this. JARVIS would have been able to sense that even if Wade's mutations hide him from his other sensors," Steve pointed out, shrugging his shoulders as he said so. Tony opened his mouth to argue but Steve made too good of a point. So instead, the genius pouted. A rather familiar look on Thor's face but no one really commented on it.

"Should I leave and go get it?" Wade wondered.

"Not sure we can trust you on your own," Natasha grumbled, remembering Clint's past history with dealing with the mutant. Wade smiled underneath his mask again.

"Maybe. If Hawky asked nicely," Wade teased. Natasha rolled her eyes even as she snorted at him. Getting Clint to come anywhere near Wade at this point would be pointless and more than likely lead to Hulk coming out and attacking the mutant. But Wade wasn't looking at the group anymore. He was looking up. A quick glance and Natasha noticed that right above the mutant was a vent cover.

How Clint was able to sneak back up onto the floor and hide in the vents was beyond Natasha. Especially, doing all that while in Bruce's body. She had never thought of the doctor as a quiet soul. But then again, Clint had spent a good amount of time in the vents. By memory, he could tell what area would make noise no matter what pressure was put on it. Just slight control was needed over his new body to make it without making a sound. She smiled at the cover. No one else seemed to understand that Wade and Natasha knew that Clint had been listening in on their conversation.

"FINE!" Clint snapped loudly, making Bruce, Steve, Tony and Thor jump in surprise. None of them had even realized that the archer was within ear shot, never mind hiding in the vent above Wade Wilson. A few seconds later and Bruce's body was dropping from the vent just as lithely as if Clint was in his own body. Apparently, he had already gotten used to the change. Faster than any of the others.

"I didn't know I could do that," Bruce mumbled, almost too quiet to be heard. Wade focused on him, his mask twisted to show his smile.

"Hawky is good in any body. Can get them all to do things one never would have thought of. Like a bit of outfit could turn into a weapon," Wade giggled, remembering something that only he would know. Clint rolled his eyes and focused on the mutant.

"Wade," Clint warned. "Really not the best time for your insanity."

"I get that. Hulk can tear me to bits. Doesn't mean I won't come back," Wade chortled. Clint's eyes narrowed and the skin around them turned green. Wade tilted his head to one side and raised his hands in defense. A light chuckle came from the mutant before he spoke. "Doesn't mean I want to risk it."

"Good. So, you'll leave and not come back until you have what you used to change us. Correct?" Clint growled. Wade made a bunch of random movements that made it seem like he was thinking about it. Clint knew better though. He stepped forward. Apparently using Hulk to threaten someone (especially Wade) worked well for the archer. "Wade."

"Maybe," Wade honestly answered. Clint sighed. It was the best he could get from the mutant but he wouldn't admit that to the others. Behind him, Clint heard Tony moan in dismay. Steve grumbled something like a displeasing word but accepted it. Thor snorted. Bruce sighed deeply, almost like he was relieved that this was almost over. Natasha growled lightly. "I may be back before then. Might need help finding the bluish rock thingy."

"You better not return without it," Tony lamely threatened, figuring he could add his two cents now. Wade turned to face the genius. He seemed to find the genius humorous and was interested in hearing what Tony had to say. "My AI recognizes you now. You won't get in without us knowing about it."

"Bald face lie. I can get in whenever I please," Wade stated, sounding more like a demand than a statement of fact. Tony's eyes narrowed. The genius had no idea that Wade actually knew that he could sneak in and out of the tower without setting off any of JARVIS's alarms. Even if Tony fixed the sensors to search for Wade, the mutant would still slip past the system. "Cause, I'm that good!"

No... Just, vital if I get writers block.

"Well, that too," Wade mentioned, looking to the sky once again. Thor tried to look up as well, wishing he could see who Wade was conversing with. Tony tossed his hands in the air, sick of Wade's nonsense.

"Who the fuck is he talking too?" Tony demanded. Clint snorted and crossed his arms.

"The fucking voices in his head. Just ignore it," the archer suggested. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Kinda hard not too when that's basically all he does."

"It's not all I do. Just... Most of what I do," Wade argued.

"Hey, aren't you supposed to be looking for something?" Natasha sharply suggested. Wade looked to her before nodding.

"Yeah. Guess my little role is done for now. Unless, someone needs something new to happen and can't figure out how to do it," Wade teased. Yeah, Wade isn't really that important. I'll think of something. "Sure..."

"GET OUT!" Clint roared, done with the mutant now. Wade chuckled before turning tail and rushing off toward the door out to the balcony. He really wasn't going to risk a Hulk attack. Maybe later when Hulk wasn't attached to someone who seemed to hate him so much. Clint narrowed his eyes, watching the mutant for any signs of trouble.

"That's a sixty story drop," Bruce calmly mentioned as Wade opened the glass door and rushed out into the now mid-morning air. Everyone watched as Wade raced across the balcony pathway before launching himself over an edge. Bruce edged forward a few steps before noting that no one else was moving to check on the mutant. He sighed. "And we apparently don't care."

"I once found Wade trapped in a tube filled with water," Clint softly admitted, his focus still on where Wade jumped off the balcony. Everyone focused on the archer in surprise. Even Natasha didn't know the origin of Clint meeting Wade. "Every five minutes or so, he would come to life, slowly drown to death and just go limp... Then it would happen all over again. It took almost four times of Wade doing this before I realized what was happening. I, stupidly, saved him. Ever since, he thought we somehow became 'bros' and he hasn't really left me alone for long."

"That sounds... Terrifying," Tony mumbled, sounding more than a little disturbed by the idea. The genius had a hard enough time remembering the water torture he suffered at the hands of the Ten Rings. And he didn't die once. To have to actually die multiple times, it sounded so wrong.

"Why don't you get along with Wade?" Steve asked as the archer began walking toward the living room to try and relax after the tense conversation with the mutant. The archer shrugged as he plopped down.

"It's not that we don't get along. Wade and I have about the same level of self-preservation skills. It's too dangerous for me to be around him long. I have to act like that so that Wade gets bored and leaves me alone faster," Clint explained. Steve nodded. Made sense in a really crazy and stupid kind of way. Then again, when dealing with Deadpool, crazy just might be boring.

"Who the hell came up with that?" Tony chuckled. Clint looked away as the others began to join him in the living room.

"Coulson..."

"Oh," Tony retorted. Honestly, he shouldn't be surprised. They all knew that Phil Coulson had been Clint's handler throughout most of his time at S.H.I.E.L.D. Never mind that Clint tended to only follow Coulson's rules. None of them really liked recalling Coulson's memory but it seemed that whenever someone did slip up in any way, Clint was usually the most affected. "Sorry."

"No big deal... Wade almost got me killed three or four times," Clint mentioned, blowing off the normal depressive mood that usually encompassed the group at the mention of Coulson.

"I'm gonna have to hear about that soon," Tony snorted. Clint chuckled and shook his head.

"Maybe after Wade fixes this..."

* * *

 **5323 words this chapter. OMG, I am sooooo sorry about not posting last week. We got a little busy around here with doctors appointments, daily schedules, and illnesses that I couldn't find a spare minute. Heck, even this week has been rather difficult in trying to write. I don't think I've done any new writing in about two and a half weeks and trying to find time to edit is like trying to find time to nap around here. I'm dying! Lol, JK. Just pregnant.**

 **Little Clint has finally been going to behavioral studies so we may have an answer as to why he is so delayed by the end of this month. Darius is being a pain... He's running out of room to move around so I feel everything and he has a rather strong hit/kick. Each time he moves you can see my stomach shifting which is cool considering I'm a 280 lbs woman and most people wouldn't think you could see that. But basically, ever see that scene from _Alien_ where the alien comes out that dude's chest and stomach. Yeah, that's how Darius makes my stomach look, lol. He is finally in proper position and I'm not sure he likes it... And my doc just warned me that I'm basically due anyday even though I won't be 40 weeks until June 6th. With Darius being so active, my doc is worried that I might pop before we can schedule my c-section. Oh, well, at least it will be over.**

 **Responses:  
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 **Reviews:**

 _Th3RedPyro_ – Deadpool is my 'villain' this story, yup. ^_^ I really enjoyed his insanity and it just seemed proper to use him. I've been having some fun writing him and hope that I get his spirit down.

 _sammygirl1963_ – Well, thank you for the compliment. It means a lot to hear that someone is enjoying my writing. My favorite part of that chapter was writing that scene. I so loved pushing the boundaries of Natasha and Steve. Little Darius did correct his position and now I swear he is fluffing my bladder up like a pillow and my bladder then is like, 'Ok, I'll make her go' and so I just keep going. But I love him still and can't wait for this to be over.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ – Wow, that does sound like a big move. And yes, Wade Wilson is like a complete and utter juvenile, lol. But that just makes the story more fun. On your note about Steve being so incredible naive, I was basing that off the fact that in the 40s, most men might not care what happens to women or even be taught that in school and if it was taught in school that Steve might have already been forced to drop out before this type of conversation accord. And as a mother of (currently) one son, I don't think I'd have the heart to explain to Clint what a period was about. Sex, no problem, but what happens during a monthly time and how women deal with it, probably not. Also, in my school when we reached this topic in sex-ed, the girls were separated from the guys and so the guys never learned about periods outside of one week in a month a woman was basically 'to be avoided'. And believe me, I don't take this as criticism and please don't take this as me being angry with you, I just wanted to explain what I felt. I was around during the 40s, and being on 27 myself, I only have my experience and guesses to go by. As for Bruce and Clint, I honestly didn't even think about the fact that Bruce was smacking his own nose, I just felt that was something that Bruce would do, lol. Glad you thought it was cute though. Working with Clint's control over himself and Hulk has been fun and I can't wait to see what you think of the rest. Thanks for the review!


	5. Chapter 5

"Well, at least we know who did this to us now," Bruce (as Steve) told the group, trying to sound cheerful. Natasha (as Tony) shook her head, resting her new body beside Clint (as Bruce) in a way that used to be normal for the duo. Her chest pulled tight and a pinch of pain had her sit differently and glance up at Tony (as Thor) but the genius didn't seem to notice. Instead, Tony was sitting in Thor's normal seat with his phone in his hand, distracted from everything going on around him. Thor (as Clint) and Steve (as Natasha) were both standing near the doorway to the balcony. Steve was focused on the others but Thor was still staring out into the city as if he could still see Wade, bumbling along. Which honestly, Clint wouldn't be surprised if the thunderer actually could. Hell, he's been known to read the headlines and even sometimes the first page of the newspaper from the stand just outside Stark Tower. Arrow, who had been released from medical due to his incessant whining, bounced around the room, unaware of what was causing the tension that everyone seemed to have.

"Yeah, a mentally insane merc who can't even remember where he hid his new toy. For all we know, Skull or A.I.M or hell, even Loki already has it and this could get much worse," Clint claimed, rubbing Natasha's leg. Both frowned when the feeling only seemed to creep them out. Clint quickly stopped and began rubbing his hands as if Natasha's skin was diseased. Natasha's frown deepened but she didn't comment on Clint's actions. The archer glanced at her before giving a half smile. She just rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, keepin' it positive," Tony sarcastically drawled, looking over his phone as he spoke. Clint shrugged. No one had said that they were trying or anything. Besides, someone had to be a realist about this whole thing. If they didn't then they might be tempted to get cocky. And that was never a good thing.

"Wade may be insane, but for some reason, he really does care about you," Natasha stated, placing her hand on Clint's shoulder. The archer bristled even as he pushed up the pair of glasses on his face. He stared at her with such a bland expression that Natasha felt she had to speak more. Something about Wade finding the archer important was almost unreal. But Natasha was certain of it. Arrow yiped and dropped his front half and waggled his butt in the air to try and entice Clint to play with him. Distractedly, Clint noted a ball sitting by his feet. "He'll remember where he put it and come back to help. He wouldn't leave you like this."

"In time for the delivery?" Clint snipped, nodding his head toward Tony even as he picked the ball up and gently tossed it aside. Natasha furrowed her brows in confusion. All she could think was 'delivery? Delivery of what?' Bruce glanced to Clint before looking to Tony, trying to understand the connection. From what he knew, Tony wasn't waiting on a package and why would it matter if this was fixed by then? Steve frowned, trying to figure out what would be delivered and why it was an important date. Even Tony looked a bit lost on the whole subject. Then again, he was still a bit distracted with his phone. Clint sighed, figuring he'd have to explain but Thor turned to look back at them with a smile. Arrow slid across the kitchen tile and smacked into the island in his attempt to catch the ball, no one noticed.

"Ah, the young Stark!" Thor exclaimed, for once, getting a reference before any of the others. They all looked to him, shocked before realizing that he was right. Tony's eyes widened as he turned back to Clint.

"He fucking better!" the genius cried, almost accusing Clint of this problem. Arrow paused in his retrieval to see if anyone was in trouble. Seeing no issue, he went back to looking for his ball which rolled under a small slit beneath the fridge. "I want to hold my kid in my own arms! Not Thor's!"

"I suggest that we reconvene in the lab to try and help?" Bruce softly muttered. Tony glanced over at the doc. Bruce shrugged. Better than sitting there moping. Bruce felt like he needed to do something. "Well, we can't very well go after Wilson now. And Steve's right. The amount of power required to do this will be large. We can track it down by the amount of power it gives off."

"By using the moment JARVIS's system crashed, we can figure out the type of power it used! Then we find the largest source of that power and trace it!" Tony called, getting more and more excited with each word till he was basically bouncing on his toes at the end. Bruce chuckled but nodded in agreement. That was indeed what he was planning on doing. "Genius! I knew I kept you around for something!"

"Tony," Steve warned, having discussed (many times) that statements like that had a poor effect on the intended target. Bruce didn't seem to really mind but Steve didn't care about at the moment. Many times Tony has said things to Steve himself or even to Clint that bothered them for weeks, sometimes months. It was best that Tony learned he couldn't do things like that and get away with it. But since Bruce looked unbothered, Tony just shrugged off the warning before walking off with Bruce at his side. Both men were already lost in a technical conversation about the tracking algorithm that they'd need. Neither noticed Arrow trying to tear at the bottom of the fridge in his attempt to get the ball.

"What shall we do now?" Thor questioned once Tony and Bruce had properly left. Clint, Natasha and Steve looked to the thunderer. "The Man of Iron and our Doctor have distracted themselves. What shall we do?"

"Tony and Bruce," Clint replied, unsure why he was really correcting Thor. Some days the thunderer got it right and other days, he switched to his old sayings. It was almost as if he forgot the correct name for the person and just made something up. Thankfully whatever Thor tended to make up, the others were easily able to figure out who he was talking about. "It's Tony and Bruce... Not that other thing."

"Yes, I apologize. I sometimes forget," Thor claimed but Clint was unsure if Thor forgot the other Avengers' names or if he forgot that that was how he was supposed to call them. Clint waved a hand at him in dismissal as a yawn overcame him. Steve and Natasha traded a look. It was as if Clint just suddenly aged by ten years with that yawn. Something was wrong with the archer. Apparently something that Clint couldn't really sense as he wasn't concerned with any of it. But Steve could recognize the signs. Signs he had once been told to watch out for, so many years ago.

"No problem. Boy, I'm beat," Clint stated, yawning a second time in as many seconds. Natasha shifted closer to the archer. Steve moved away from the doorway to check on the archer as well.

"You Hulk-ed out a lot yesterday. Did you eat anything?" Natasha wondered. Clint closed his eyes, relaxing a bit into the couch. Steve frowned. Something about this all seemed familiar. While he had never seen it for himself, the description of the event was exactly like what was happening to Clint. Now Thor was even getting concerned for the archer's wellbeing. He moved closer as Clint mumbled something to Natasha that made her smack him on the arm. Thankfully it wasn't as hard as she normally hit him. Arrow was still at the fridge, unaware that something was happening to his master. "You idiot!"

"Ow!" Clint cried, even as he chuckled lightly at her with his eyes still closed. It was now that he was glad that he was used to Natasha hitting him. He had known that Bruce's warning the day before wouldn't last long. Natasha couldn't stop hitting him for some reason. Almost as if it was a reflex of some sort. He should be concerned with it, but he just never cared. Shaking her head, Natasha got up and began to move around the couch.

"Bruce's metabolism is much higher than your own," Natasha snapped, walking quickly toward the kitchen. Thor shook his head and followed in an effort to help. It was him that ended up kneeling down and retrieving Arrow's ball. Once Thor tossed it back to the living room though, Arrow gave up the chase to check on Clint. Steve took up Natasha's empty space as he shook his head. Clint didn't even notice the change. He seemed to be drifting faster. Steve tapped the side of the archer's face, getting the half asleep man to open his eye and look at him.

"You might not actually be sleepy. It's just you don't have any calories to spare in keeping you awake," Steve explained. Clint closed his eye in an effort to rest while he waited for Natasha to return. Steve frowned and tapped on his cheek again. Clint groaned and reopened his eye. This time he looked highly annoyed. Steve just smiled. At least Clint was thinking fine. Steve had been warned that he hadn't been able to. "You need to stay awake. Trust me."

"How did you last during the war? They say a lot of soldiers went without food," Clint softly asked, not trying to sound like an ass but failing. His tired body put a bit too much force behind his words and made it sound like he was blaming the Captain for such an issue. Steve blushed and looked away. Apparently this was a sensitive subject. Clint winced, realizing how much like Tony he had sounded. He opened his other eye and tried to sit up a bit. In the new opening between Clint's arm and the couch, Arrow stuck his head, trying to give support. Steve gently helped the archer try to sit up. "Sorry."

"No... No, it's just... The Howling Commandos and I never really went without food. It wasn't until I woke in this time that I learned resources were diverted to whatever camp we were staying in," Steve admitted. Clint looked away, feeling guilty for having said anything. He hadn't meant to bring up a sore topic. Steve snorted lightly but when Clint looked to him, the archer could tell that it wasn't from humor. The Captain was beating himself up. "Only once did I not get enough food to keep going. We were stranded from camp and I was busy making sure the others kept fed. Didn't notice anything was wrong till it was too late. I went to bed one night and woke up almost three days later. The guys said that they couldn't get me to do anything. I only woke after they forced fluids into me from IV."

"Jeez," Clint muttered. Steve smiled gently but Clint could tell that the Captain didn't mean it. Almost like he was just smiling to show Clint that he didn't blame him for starting this sore subject. Clint began to feel even worse. He half wished he hadn't said anything.

"After that Bucky and the others started keeping extra food stashes in their packs. There were a few tough missions afterwards were they all skipped meals just so I could eat and keep fighting for them. I had thought they were the only ones," Steve answered. Clint focused on the ground before his mind sparked something random. He glanced over at Steve.

"Shudda had a Snickers," the archer joked in an effort to lighten the mood. Steve chuckled, having seen the commercials enough to know what Clint was quoting. Didn't take away the guilt that either men were feeling but it did end the subject on a partially high note.

"Those commercials annoy me," Natasha called, returning to the living room with a tray full of food and drinks. Clint glanced over the items she gathered as Thor returned with food for himself. The thunderer moved back to the door by the balcony as he looked over his friends. Steve shook his head at Thor but said nothing about it. He was still worried about Clint. The conversation seemed to invigorate him but it wouldn't be enough if the archer didn't eat soon. And Steve really wasn't sure how Hulk would stand going down because of lack of food.

"And you didn't learn from them. Where's the Snickers?"

"I don't want to see Hulk on a sugar high," the spy retorted, dropped the tray gently before the archer. It was filled with a variety of health food that Bruce tended to eat. Colors and textures and items that Clint had never tried and a few that he had never seen before. He made a face at the selection and glanced up at Natasha even as oblivion called to him.

"Is any of this actually edible?"

"Yep, and good for you too," Natasha snorted, grabbing a red pepper slice off the plate and popping it into her mouth. Clint, who knew that Tony couldn't handle the spice from fresh cut peppers, watched her with a small smile. Steve and Thor looked back and forth between Clint and Natasha as they wondered what would happen next. For a moment, Natasha looked so pleased with herself but as she stared at Clint, she knew she was in trouble. Then the heat started. At first, she tried to hold it back like she normally did but Tony's body got the better of her. Clint was laughing as loud as his tired body could by the time Natasha began fanning her mouth and rushing back to the kitchen to find something to stop the burning. Arrow happily barked after her as he started to chase her down. His master laughing meant that he was fine.

"You sure 'bout that?" the archer cackled even as Steve reached forward to grab something. Clint readily accepted it as Natasha replied.

"Screw you, Barton!"

* * *

"How does he not break everything?" Tony grumbled as he attempted to type on the fifth keyboard since coming down to the lab. He was rather quickly running out of extras in his lab. Soon he'd have to raid either Bruce's lab or Stark Industries storage. The genius glanced over at Bruce to see how the doctor was coming along. He half assumed that Bruce would have been having the same issues but the doc was still on his original keyboard. "How are you not?"

"As a doctor, I've had to learn to control my strength for certain times. As owner of Hulk, I learned how to curb my anger, frustration and whatever else would cause me to harshly attack a keyboard. Never mind all of the other practices I learned while trying to rid myself of the Other Guy," Bruce explained, glancing over to the genius. Tony snorted and began typing again. Each letter caused the keyboard to creak dangerously. Bruce chuckled at him. "Act like everything is an egg. Fragile, delicate."

Tony frowned but nodded anyways. Much more gently and defiantly slower than before, Tony started typing again. It was almost as if Tony was typing at the same pace Steve used too when first learning computers. When the keyboard didn't creak or seem to have any other issues, Tony smiled and started to pick up the pace in an effort to make up the time he lost with the destroyed keyboards before. Bruce winced lightly when he began to see that Tony wasn't watching his strength anymore and the keyboard started to protest. Tony didn't notice. He instead looked to Bruce.

"Hey, wow! That work-"

CRACK

"-ed. Never mind..." Tony mumbled, turning back to the newest addition to the ruined pile of scrap. Bruce shook his head.

"Didn't do much egg racing in school, eh?" Bruce joked, turning back to his work. Tony shrugged lightly, pushing the keyboard to the pile he had accumulated.

"Didn't go to school." Bruce's eyes widened in shock. He hadn't known that about Tony. Well, the genius usually always talked about college but never really high school or middle school or anything. But then again, none of the others tended to either.

"But..." Bruce began to say. Tony shrugged again as he got up to grab one of the last free keyboards left in the lab. The genius made a mental note to get JARVIS to send more soon.

"Jarvis home schooled me till I got accepted into college. That was my first school. No egg racing there unless you were really drunk off your ass," Tony replied, tugging on the free keyboard only to realize that this one was wired into the computer it was attached too. Tony would have to work from this one spot and not from where he had been. Bruce winced. "Hey J. Pull up a holo keyboard?"

"Yes, Sir. Keyboard-AJ Beta," JARVIS intoned as the board light up on Tony's desk. The genius quickly returned to it. Bruce frowned as he spotted it.

"Why didn't you do that to begin with?" the doctor wondered. Tony sighed.

"It's in Beta testing. Too many bugs for normal use. I'll spend an extra hour or so going through my work in the end. All to make sure this stupid thing didn't mess it up," Tony stated even as he began slow work. Every few seconds, he was hitting the backspace key to delete what he had typed. After a moment, Tony glanced over to Bruce with a thin smile. "Same hour I would have wasted getting new keyboards every few minutes."

"Okay," Bruce claimed before going back to work himself. The lab went silent outside of Bruce typing at his work station and the sounds of Tony cussing off at his beta holo-keyboard.

* * *

"Fucking damn-it!" Clint cussed, raging out for a moment. He sighed, taking a breath to calm the rage beast asking to come out. As stupid as this idea was, Clint knew he needed to get control over Hulk. If something as stupid and little as not being able to hit the target with his preferred weapon of choice got him upset, he was so screwed in the long run. How could Bruce be able to hold him back when dealing with everyone else?

"I thought Bruce and Tony banned your access," a cool female voice asked. Clint glanced over to the door to see Natasha standing there, Cap's shield placed on the floor beside her. The archer's eyes narrowed before remembering Steve was the one stuck as the lithe spy before him. He was half tempted to ignore the Captain but Steve had Natasha's curious face on. There was no way that he'd leave without some sort of explanation from the archer. Arrow, who had been in the range with Clint, was sitting on the ground beside the shield. The pup was trying hard not to go chasing after the arrows. After the first one he tried to chase that had bounced off the wall and almost hit him, Arrow had been much more careful.

"They did," Clint confirmed with another sigh. He turned back to the target as he pulled another arrow out of the waiting quiver on the ground beside him. He loaded it on the bow and string without another word. Steve didn't seem bothered. Clint pulled back and aimed. Bruce's glasses slipped down his nose a bit, making it difficult to focus clearly on the target. His aim shifted a bit to cover for it. Steve said nothing still. "You gonna do anything about it?"

"I was going to practice tossing my shield about. But it's been a while since I shot a gun," Steve offered. Clint snorted, releasing the arrow at the same time.

THUNK.

It hit the back wall with a heavy sound. Clint growled, feeling Hulk surface even further. Arrow whined and stood as if he was going to go to Clint's side but Steve waved a hand to stop the pup. Another sigh came from the archer; this time Clint closed his eyes with it in order to center himself better. Keeping Hulk back as he practiced archery was getting harder and harder with each second that passed. Hulk could feel that Clint was upset and just wanted to come out and help. That's what he was there for. Helping get rid of whatever upset Bruce, and now Clint.

"Go to sleep, go to sleep," Clint silently begged as he fought against the green rage. Steve moved forward, leaving his shield behind as he shifted towards Clint's side. Amazingly, Arrow didn't follow after the soldier. Steve gently touched the archer on his shoulder, making him jump in surprise. Snapping his eyes open, Clint looked to see Steve was there. Steve wasn't all that surprised to see the green glow behind Bruce's normally brown eyes.

"Banner said to allow Hulk to see from your eyes. Let Hulk see there are no enemies here. He has no reason to come out," Steve soothed. Clint groaned as Hulk pushed forward a bit harsher than before. But knowing that Steve was right, Clint allowed Hulk to look out over the range. Unbeknownst to him, his muscles rippled a bit larger and his skin tinted green. But Hulk didn't come full out as he saw that it was just Steve and them there. Hulk grumbled in confusion but back backed down, allowing Clint better access. Surprised that both Hulk backed down and sent forth a wave of emotion, Clint looked to Steve.

"Wow, that... That actually worked!" the archer told him, glee filling him. Steve smiled, pleased that it did work. "How did you know?"

"I didn't. But thinking about what Bruce said, I assumed," Steve replied. Clint stared at him for a beat. The soldier shrugged. "Bruce once said that he was always angry. He also told you to let Hulk see from your eyes. Putting all that together, I figured that meant that Bruce had to stay angry enough for Hulk to appear in his mind and look out. And considering Hulk has gotten better at understanding the rest of the team are allies even though he hasn't been out that much, I knew he wouldn't find any real danger here."

"And if Hulk decided Natasha was a danger?" Clint wondered. Steve smiled as this was something he had figured out with Bruce a long time ago. In fact, one of his first conversations (at the tower) with Bruce was pretty much over the same idea.

"Bruce's fastest changing time is 15 seconds. That's him not fighting against Hulk at all and just releasing him. The more he tends to fight back and stop changing, the longer the time extends. I'd be out of the room and have locked the door by the time you were done," Steve described. Clint snorted, not sure he could trust the captain to be that fast.

"You timed Bruce's changes?" the archer asked. Steve nodded.

"With JARVIS's help. It's important for a leader to know all about his teammates," Steve answered. Clint nodded, having heard something similar from Coulson once before. Knowing that Steve was so in tune with the team eased the archer's mind. It was sort of nice having someone else worry about him. "Do you want to give shooting another go?"

"Yeah, sure," Clint muttered after a pause to think about it. Steve smiled and backed away to give his teammate some room. Feeling much calmer than he had since this whole incident started, Clint readied an arrow, sighted down the range and fired.

THWACK!

The arrow hit the ring outside the center circle. Clint's best shot since being put in Bruce's body. Steve's smile widened at the sight. He looked over to Clint who just seemed a bit shocked at the placement. But Steve couldn't tell if the archer was upset with it or as pleased as the Captain was. Arrow perked up. He always loved chasing after arrows and if his master was improving again, maybe he could get back to it.

"Nice," Steve praised. Clint chuckled at him before getting another arrow to try again. He glanced over to the soldier.

"I can do better," Clint declared before firing without looking.

THWACK!

Dead center. Clint let out a cheer of success. Feeling free, Clint quickly got another ready without a word from Steve. He fired this one faster than before. Barely leaving any time to make sure his aim was true. Arrow barked in joy as soon as it was released.

THWACK!

Dead center again. Bursting with pride and finally feeling like himself again, Clint grabbed three arrows and fired them together. Arrow jumped from his spot by the door and prepared himself for a chase.

THWACK!

All three, dead center. Arrow rushed down the range to collect the fallen arrows and the ones still stuck in the targets. Clint "Hawkeye" Barton was back. Happier than he'd been in a long time, Clint looked to where Steve last was. But Steve wasn't there anymore. Neither was his shield. He was just... Gone. Clint looked around. He was alone in the range.

"JARVIS? Where did Steve go?" Clint called, placing his bow down on the floor to go search for the Captain. Arrow returned, huffing with his mouth full of arrows.

"Captain Rogers is in the training room. He is tossing his shield around," JARVIS retorted. Clint nodded, having a distant memory of Steve saying he wanted to do as much. The archer sighed, half wondering what he should do now. Steve normally trained alone, just like the archer himself. Did the Captain leave any clues that he wanted Clint to join him? Thinking back, Clint couldn't remember any. Biting his lip lightly, Clint spoke again. Arrow nudged the archer's leg and Clint unconsciously began petting him. Pleased with the attention, Arrow dropped the arrows on the floor beside them.

"Does he seem to be doing okay?"

"Captain Rogers is having a minor issue with his aiming but he has not indicated wanting help," JARVIS reported. Nodding once again, Clint glanced at his bow. He was now left with a few choices. Either he stopped practicing and went up to meditate or he could continue on. With a deep sigh, Clint picked back up his bow, the discarded arrows, and went back to shooting. If he was going to do practice shooting in Bruce's body, he might as well do his normal regimen. Arrow yipped happily and began prancing about the range, trying to catch the arrows before they hit the target. Clint just laughed and became a bit more careful in his aiming than before.

* * *

 **4505 words this chapter. Sorry for being late by a day. My husband surprised me after work by saying we were going to his younger brothers' high school play. We didn't get home till 10 and then not into bed till 11. If I wasn't pregnant I would have been able to stay up and post but right now, I need my sleep, lol.**

 **Family life has been rather boring this week for my main family. But sadly my aunt, who is suffering from cancer, has been having complications. Thankfully not life threatening but earlier this year she was given only seven months to live so we are all very worried. Anyways, please pray that she can last through this and beat back the cancer. I would like one more chance to see her at least and right now the earliest I'm allowed to go is July. Anywho, Clint is doing well. Starting to say more words including ship which sounds like shit, lol, but toddlers always do that. Hubby just went through some mole removal and now can't carry Clint. The main time that I lift him is in the morning when I get him out of his crib and his 44 lbs body is just too much. I'm beginning to feel that he might send me into early labor so if I don't post on time, or basically by Monday if there is no post, I'm in the hospital lol.**

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 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – No problem on the late review, and I'm sorry that RL has been hard. I get the feeling. And I'm sorry that you don't like Wade but I am glad that I portrayed him correctly. The idea that Clint saved him and they became best bros was actually a fanfiction on this site. _In Wade We Trust (We Are So Screwed)_ by dentalfloss is the story that I based that on. In the comics, I have no idea how they met and why Wade is so close with Clint. As for personal life, I hope to get good news as well. And yes, Clint is absolutely adorable. Every time we go out he gets at least two compliments from people. Its awesome. Darius is very active. In fact, he's getting so active that I'm afraid he's going to try and come out earlier than his due date. As for Natasha beating up Wade... That might be fun near the end and if I remember, lol.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ – Thank you and yes, I broke the fourth wall. Deadpool is like the only character that I know of that can do such a thing. I had so much fun working with his insanity but there was a few times that he wanted to say something much more nastier than I wanted in this story. He really took over once or twice. About Clint getting Bruce's body into the vents, I love incorporating skills that the others have to their new bodies. It's helping them learn more about each other and getting them closer as a team. No problem about the updates on my family. It's almost a better stress reliever than talking to a therapist about them. lol


	6. Chapter 6

"Is there something I should be doing?" Thor (as Clint) questioned, trailing after Natasha (as Tony) as the two walked about the tower. The spy glanced over at the thunderer. Currently she was on her own way to Tony's lab. Her chest was aching fiercely and she needed to talk to the genius. Something was wrong with the arc reactor and she feared for the worse. Having been Tony's assistant during the time that he was dying of palladium poison from the reactor, Natasha could only imagine what was wrong now.

"Well, what do you normally do?" Natasha curiously suggested in the form of a question. She honestly had no idea what Thor tended to do when he was with them. Too busy off doing her own thing with Clint or what have you to notice. Heck, Natasha wasn't entirely sure what any of them did in free time outside of Clint and herself. Thor shrugged, not positive that things were the correct things to do while in Clint's body.

"Eat, watch the moving pictures, call my Lady Jane, sleep..." Thor listed. Natasha stopped walking and looked at the thunderer in surprise.

"Do you ever, train? Leave the tower?" Natasha started. Thor frowned.

"I thought we are to be confined here," Thor stated. Natasha took her turn to frown now. Not really her point in the question but at least he understood it would be bad if they left in their current form. It was an idea that Natasha was certain they hadn't really discussed before. But after the incident with Tony and little six year old Clint, all the Avengers had agreed that when something strange happened to them; they wouldn't go out in public unless something forced them like a mission or saving the world.

"Yeah but... That's all you ever do?" Thor nodded. Natasha blinked in shock. How could anyone do so little all day long? And even for multiple days in a row? She would be bored in an instant. Steve was never seen sitting for long periods of time unless he was drawing. Bruce was similar, only sat down for long periods to read. Otherwise the doctor was in a lab or hanging about with Tony. Tony was always on the move, doing something. And Clint... Well, Clint usually just trained.

"Shall I enjoy more moving pictures?" Thor inquired. Natasha cringed as she glanced over Clint's body. The archer was particular about his body since joining the Avengers. 90% of the time, one would find him in a training room or the range. He had to constantly train to be able to keep up with the rest of the team. While Natasha never sat down and talked with Clint about, she almost felt as if the issue with Loki was partially responsible.

"I'd... Talk to Barton," she suggested finally. Thor nodded and the two began moving again. Once they reached the elevator, Thor looked to the spy. He seemed pleased with this new plan on what to do, but Natasha could tell something was bothering him. Before she could ask, he spoke.

"Where shall I find him?" Natasha rolled her eyes. She should have expected that. Thor never seemed to understand what the others did or even the ability to use JARVIS.

"The roof, his room, Bruce's room, the Hulk-out room, any of the training rooms," Natasha mentioned. Thor smiled as the elevator arrived. They entered together. Natasha pressed the number for Tony's lab. Thor pressed the highest number. Apparently, he was going to attempt the roof first. The ride was silent until the elevator stopped at the floor for Tony's lab. As Natasha got off, she held her hand in the door to stop it from moving on. She looked to the thunderer. "Good luck."

"I thank you. I shall hopefully find our friend soon. The 'City of Sex' had what I have learned is a 'marathon' later," Thor brightly called. Natasha blanched, recognizing the show name in some distant part of her head.

"You watch _Sex in the City_?" she called. Thor nodded. Natasha groaned. "Oh god."

"Is something wrong?" Thor wondered. He hadn't gotten that response from any of the others whenever he mentioned the show. Steve had given him a curious gaze. Bruce had given him a soft chuckle and a shake of his head before moving off. Tony had laughed loudly before wandering off. Natasha was now shaking her head.

"No... Just... Talk to Tony or Clint or someone else for a better choice," Natasha complained, really never wanting to catch Thor in front of the TV watching that show. There was just something wrong with that image. Thor suddenly beamed, making the spy focus on him.

"Twas our Hawk friend that showed me. That and the 'Nanny of Supers!'"

"Oh god. Just, no..."

"He claimed the Son of Coul loved these programs," Thor explained, undeterred by Natasha's cry. Natasha went white. Coulson watched _Sex in the City_? She knew about _Supernanny_ but... Then again, Coulson was a bit strange like that. She moved back, shaking her head as the elevator door closed and Thor continued on his search.

Thor arrived on the roof only a minute or two later. He entered out into the open air and glanced around for any sign of the now elusive Hawk. Clint normally sat in an area on the right side of the access. It was a small space of roof behind huge air conditioning tubes. The way he normally sat there, one couldn't see Clint unless they snuck over there as well. In his normal body, Thor never used to climb the path. He used to use Mjolnir to fly over there. While in Clint's body, Thor had been too afraid to touch his hammer. If Mjolnir didn't recognize him, it would leave. Without Odin's 'curse' to keep it in place, if Mjolnir didn't realize that it was him then it would return to Asgard.

Slowly and carefully, Thor picked his way over. He didn't want to harm Clint's body but this was an unknown path to him. Thor felt as if one wrong step could damage the body he was trapped in. But Clint's body was used to this path. It moved almost of its own free will to make it safely to the other side. Once he arrived, Thor was partially stunned to find the area empty. Sighing, the thunderer moved further into the space to sit down in Clint's normal spot. Not knowing what else to do, Thor looked out over the city. Just as Clint would have done had he actually been there.

With Clint's odd eyesight, Thor was shocked at what he could see. Far below, at a street corner near the tower, Thor could clearly see a frazzled mother trying to control her little boy. The boy kept slipping out of his stroller restraints and kept trying to get out of the stroller head first. His mother was doing to best she could, moving through the crowd while watching over him. It wouldn't be long till the boy succeeded and fell. And most of the people around the duo would just chuckle or shake their heads. None of them looked like they'd be willing to help.

On another corner, a hot dog vender was quickly rushing through orders to try and rid himself of the continuously growing line. He'd get rid of one person only to have two or more people take their place. No matter how much work he did, his line just kept growing. A good days work but Thor could tell that many people were getting upset with the wait. Thankfully, the dogs must be good as none of the people left the line unless they got their order.

And straight down below, a young teen was hawking papers. Claiming all sorts of news to try and sell more and more. Thor could just about read the headline. ' _Missing Stark Adoptive Boy or an Avengers Prank?_ ' The thunderer bristled. He thought that Pepper had already dealt with that issue. Pepper had been right on top of things all throughout dealing with Clint as a kid. While the Avengers hadn't seen her do it, she had told them briefly that she made a statement about the boy that the public would never see again. Course her statements didn't help when Tony and Pepper did get official paperwork to adopt one Clint Barton. No one had seen the boy since Clint returned to normal and both Stark Industries leaders refused to comment.

"I shall have to warn them," Thor mumbled to himself even as he continued to enjoy the view with his new eyesight. It was fantastic. He could see close to three streets away almost as clearly as if he was right on top of them. It was no wonder that Clint was so good at archery. He could see such amazing things. Later, the thunderer knew he would have to speak to Clint about it. But for now, he was just enjoying watching people go about their daily lives during their 'important' lunch break.

* * *

Natasha arrived in Tony's lab to the sound of Tony (as Thor) cussing. It was strange to hear such foul language coming from Thor's body but Natasha was quickly getting used to the strange changes since waking in Tony's body. Bruce (as Steve) was chuckling at his work station, not really commenting on what Tony was bitching about now. Natasha coughed lightly, not really trying to get anyone's attention just that she felt the need too. Her chest tightened and she found herself coughing harsher for a few seconds, trying to catch her breath. Alerted by the noise, Tony and Bruce turned to see Natasha standing by the doorway. For a moment, neither man said a word but as Natasha continued coughing and slowly began to fall to her knees, they realized something was wrong.

Tony moved first. He, knowing his body well enough, could see the signs of what was happening to the spy. Honestly, the days before this whole incident, he had felt something was wrong. His chest had been tight and it was getting harder to get a full breath in. But it didn't truly alarm him. If he had been alarmed, maybe he could have stopped this from happening to Natasha.

Bruce followed Tony's lead. Grabbing Natasha before she drifted out onto the floor. He held her tight, but not tight enough to hurt. Just enough to keep her as upright as possible. His medical skills quickly came into practice as he examined Natasha. She was coughing, having a hard time holding air in her lungs. Was something blocking her lungs? Was she filled with some sort of liquid? Was this an adverse reaction to switching bodies? Would everyone suffer from this?

"I thought I was getting a cold," Tony mumbled as soon as Natasha stopped. He was worriedly staring at her. She couldn't say anything to him. Her chest was starting to burn and she felt weak from lack of air. Bruce was supporting her right now and even he seemed concerned. At Tony's words, he looked up, stunned.

"A cold? Seriously?" Bruce asked sounding a little put off that the answer was so simple. Tony nodded.

"Well, the Arc Reactor is placed in my chest. It sits right next to my heart and I lost nearly a quarter of one lung and a small bit of the other. A minor cold of mine would be like pneumonia to a normal person," Tony pointed out. Natasha coughed out again and fell into another fit were she couldn't catch her breath. Blackness began to fall over her as she dropped heavily into Bruce's arms. She couldn't speak, couldn't think. All she knew right now was the moments between each breath where she prayed she didn't cough again. She felt like she was on fire and just wanted to rest.

"Do we have to bring her to the medical floor?" Bruce questioned, gently laying her on the floor. Natasha looked almost ready to pass out and the doctor was beginning to feel that something other than a cold was wrong with her. This was dangerous. But Tony had mentioned some valid points. With less lung capacity, something as easy as a cold was now as dangerous as cancer. If Bruce couldn't control this, Natasha could get bad enough that she'd die.

Tony shrugged. He normally caught an illness before it progressed this far. The last time his body suffered from a full blown cold was one of the first times it happened since getting the reactor. He had learned the signs and listened to his body... As much as people claimed he never did, Tony did know how his body worked.

"I never did. Just took some meds and came here," Tony mentioned. Bruce stared at Tony in surprise. He really shouldn't be but... How could someone so intelligent do something so immensely stupid?

"Actually Sir, most colds you take medication and are laid up in bed. Miss Potts has had to call a physician to visit you in your room," JARVIS explained. Bruce perked up. Medication? Special medication for Tony? That would work.

"Where is the medication?" he called.

"Sir leaves it in his bathroom. I am sorry, I'm usually more on top of Sir's health," JARVIS replied. Bruce nodded, not blaming the AI in the least, as he tried to lift Natasha up off the ground. She was limp in his arms and heavier than the doctor had imagined. He grunted lightly as he lifted her. Even with Steve's strength, Bruce wasn't used to carrying people around. He glanced over to Tony who had backed away as if Natasha had a more physical virus on her skin. The no touching things or people made much more sense now that Bruce knew more about Tony and his Arc Reactor.

"Tony, I need help," Bruce admitted as he struggled to get Natasha up and leave her airways opened to their full extent. Tony grimaced and backed away even more as if Bruce had claimed he was now sick as well. The doctor groaned.

"What? Why? I thought Cap would easily lift her," Tony argued. Bruce leveled the genius with a glare. While that may be true, Natasha's chest would be compacted and she'd have an even harder time breathing. Using two people to carry her, one person could have the left arm draped over their shoulders while the other had the right arm. That type of hold would extend Natasha's body and enlarge the amount of area that her lungs could expand too. "Fine."

"Thank you," Bruce sighed, shifting to properly hold Natasha. Once Tony placed her other arm around his shoulders, she groaned. Bruce looked at her. She was coming back around. All thanks to the higher capacity of breath she could get while standing. Blearily, she looked about.

"Wha," she sighed out deeply. Bruce shushed her. Talking right now would be worse for her in the end.

"Don't talk. Just focus on breathing," Bruce commanded. Natasha groaned again but nodded. She never had known an illness to hit so fast. When this first thing started, Natasha had just figured she wasn't used to the Arc Reactor in her chest. But apparently, she may have been sick the entire time. If only she had known more about the reclusive genius. "JARVIS, call Clint. Get him to Tony's floor."

"Already done Dr. Banner," JARVIS reported.

"No..." Natasha softly begged but she knew it was already done. If Clint knew there was something wrong with her and he'd worry. His worry would make him fragile, weak. Hulk would have an easier time taking control. If the archer saw her now, Clint would Hulk out and there would be nothing to stop him.

"It isn't that bad, is it?" Tony inquired, for the first time beginning to sound worried himself. Bruce looked to Tony. He had been mostly relying on the genius's word that this looked worse than it actually was. Could they both be wrong? Could Natasha have a deadly illness that was going to be worse and faster with the missing lung pieces?

"I can't tell. Everything is so messed up right now," Bruce admitted, trying to quickly move them along while staying at a pace Natasha could handle. Though with Natasha's drooping head, Bruce wasn't even sure she was awake. Her legs barely moved and they were just basically dragging her along. Not really wanting to bother her concentration but also worried about carrying a dead body, Bruce called out to her. "Natasha, you still with us? Nod your head."

"Yes," the spy hissed before another coughing fit hit her. Bruce and Tony finally made it to the elevator. It was waiting with Clint (as Bruce) and Steve (as Natasha) waiting inside. Steve was holding the door open while Clint was anxiously bouncing on his feet. Arrow sat in the back corner of the elevator, watching them all. He seemed the least bit concerned about the sudden change in events.

"Is she okay? What happened? What's going on?" Clint demanded, firing off questions before anyone could even take a breath to start to answer. Tony grunted, focusing harshly on Clint to check for signs of Hulk. Apparently the archer was doing a better job than the first day. Other than some green in the eyes, Clint looked completely normal in Bruce's body. But Tony knew that could change at any second.

"She's passing out. Tony thinks it's a cold. We are bringing her to Tony's floor to get medication," Bruce answered almost as quickly before Clint could attach any more questions. He shoved past the archer and pulled Natasha and Tony along with him. Clint backed away to allow them more room and so he could shift in front of Natasha's prone body. He glanced over her, trying to find a sign that she was okay to some degree.

"A cold? How bad?" Steve remarked, stunned that a simple cold could knock out the assassin. Since the Avengers started living with Tony, the genius had yet to get sick with anything. This was the first time any of them had to deal with it and they had no idea what they were doing. Especially seeing as Tony was usually the one suffering, he wasn't much help with clues.

"I don't know yet. We have to get to Tony's floor," Bruce ordered even as Steve moved his hand and the doors closed. They were on their way a second later. Clint quickly shifted to take over Tony's spot, allowing the genius to back off. Tony shook himself as if it rid him of the germs that Natasha could have spread all over him. A force of habit for just this type of reason. If he got sick with any disease or illness, it could spell the end for him long before his actual time. Arrow stepped forward and rubbed his head against Natasha's limp hand. When she didn't immediately start petting him, Arrow whined. Now he could tell something was wrong with her. Even though he was trained to keep watch on Clint, Arrow had gotten used to everyone on the team.

"Why Tony's floor? Why not the medical floor?" Clint desperately called. His mind was racing. They shouldn't go to Tony's floor. They needed to call for help. Did Fury have anyone on staff that could fix this? Was there any other doctor besides Bruce that they could trust? Anyone that would have clearance enough to know that the Avengers had switched bodies?

"I have special medication. Built to help me breath better rather than necessarily cure whatever I am suffering from," Tony answered. His mind briefly flashing back to the first time he had gotten sick and nearly died on poor Pepper and Happy. They had panicked and called every doctor that had ever treated Tony in his life. Only one of them had any experience with men and women who had particles near to their heart. While no one really understood the reactor and how it worked, this doctor had been able to see how it hindered Tony and worked around it without touching the reactor once.

"What? Why? How?" Clint exclaimed. His eyes finding Tony's in his horror.

"I needed something that would help me if I ever got sick. With the help of my personal doctor, we created a medication. It only works to help me," Tony explained quickly. The elevator binged as it arrived on Tony's floor. Bruce readied himself to drag Natasha along even as she fell into another coughing fit. Arrow barked at the spy. She looked paler than anyone had ever seen her. Clint lifted her higher on his own shoulders to help. Steve and Bruce were close to the same height compared to Steve and Thor, so it was much easier to move her about.

"I don't understand... What is happening to her? Is this an adverse reaction to switching bodies?" Clint cried, confused as Bruce and him gently pulled Natasha onto Tony's floor. Tony rushed past them to go find the medication that Natasha would need. Steve followed behind, unsure how he could help but still wanting to all the same. Arrow whimpered and stopped at the door. The Avengers had trained the pup not to enter everyone's (except Clint's) room unless invited.

"No, it should just be a cold. Easy fix," Bruce replied. Together the duo got Natasha to Tony's bed as she dropped into another coughing fit. This one ended with her dramatically falling back onto the bed. Bruce quickly felt along her neck to find a soft pulse. He sighed, for once really glad that he didn't have Hulk. But the thought of the green rage beast caused him to glance at Clint. Clint looked fine outside of his shinning green eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... Yeah, Hulk and I worked out a deal," Clint absently answered. Bruce frowned.

"Worked out a deal? With the Other Guy?" Clint nodded.

"Yeah. He just wants to see what is getting me upset. Once he sees that he isn't needed, he backs down," Clint muttered. Bruce's frown deepened. He had never trusted Hulk with that much power. Yes, on some degree he was always angry. Allowed Hulk to know what was going on around them but... During tense situations like this, Bruce had never risked even the slightest bit of anger. He was always as calm as possible and if any anger slipped through, he would close his eyes and block out the world around him.

"He isn't fighting for control?" Bruce wondered. Clint shook his head as Tony returned with a small cup filled with some sort of orangey gold liquid.

"Is that the meds?" Clint questioned the genius. Tony nodded as he reached for Natasha's head and lifted her slightly off the bed. Her head lolled back as her unconscious state didn't want to hold it up. In lolling back, Natasha's mouth opened a slit. Just large enough for Tony to expertly drain the cup of meds into it. Clint almost cried out in anger but stopped when Natasha gently coughed and swallowed the formula.

"She'll sleep more than likely the rest of tonight. This stuff usually knocks me out for a while," Tony described, gently laying her back down on the bed.

"What is that going to do?" Clint pleaded. Tony glanced at the archer.

"It's gonna open up the air sacks in her lungs. Her body will accept more air than before. Basically, it replaces the quarter of lung that I lost when the Arc Reactor took its place," Tony stated, calm and used to mentioning what had been done to him so many years ago. Clint shuddered. "A simple cold can knock me down for three days. The flu could kill me."

"I'm... I'm sorry, I didn't know," Clint whispered, frightened at the real possibility that Natasha was now trapped in Tony's body, dying of something as curable as the flu.

"Not many people did," Tony replied with a shrug. "I didn't want anyone to know. Pepper helped keep it quiet and always had an excuse when I was down."

"Will... Will she be okay?" Clint muttered. Tony sighed.

"JARVIS will watch over her. He knows what to watch for," Tony responded. With that, he turned to Bruce and Steve who had willingly backed away, conceding that they couldn't help in this matter. "We should let her rest."

"I'm gonna stay," Clint mumbled. Tony looked back to the archer. Everyone could see that his eyes were still glowing green. The genius grumbled, trying to figure out what to say without bothering Clint in any way. He knew it was dangerous leaving Clint here and he didn't want to risk anyone's health. Steve and Bruce though seemed fine with leaving Clint. Both of them trusted the archer to be able to hold Hulk back. He had been doing well for a while now. Especially right now... Bruce had been close to Hulk-ing out many times during situations similar to this. But Clint didn't even look like Hulk was trying. They were just left in compatible silence.

"I'd feel more comfortable with you downstairs," Tony admitted. Clint leveled the genius with an angered glare that made the green extend to the area around his eyes.

"I'm going to stay," Clint snarled. Tony narrowed his eyes. Arrow growled at the genius, sensing the building anger in both men.

"This is not only my room but my tower. I want you downstairs. Pepper texted me in the bathroom. She's coming to watch over her," Tony snapped. Clint growled deeply. Tony threateningly stepped closer to the archer. Arrow barked at the genius, pacing just outside the door. His training not allowing him access to the room unless Clint was in extreme danger. "You are leaving this room. Hulk-out and I'll make it this tower."

"Fuck you," Clint cussed before getting to his feet and stormed off toward the elevator. Arrow snarled one last time at Tony before turning to follow the archer. Tony sighed but before he could follow after Clint, Steve was there, pushing him back. As Natasha had proven time and again, when she got mad, she could rival Steve and Thor in strength. Tony fell back a few steps in shock.

"What the heck was that about?" Steve barked in anger. Tony pushed the Captain back. Being in different bodies, Steve was tossed back toward the doorway to Tony's bedroom. He crashed into the wall, cracking the plaster.

"TONY!" Bruce shouted, rushing to Steve's side to check on him.

"I don't need to hear anything about what I said to Clint. You can explain it to him when he wakes," Tony hissed, walking off even as he spoke. Bruce frowned, checking over the Captain to find that Tony was right. Steve had been knocked out with the force of the hit. Thankfully nothing was damaged and there was no excessive bleeding. While Tony had been forceful, he held back enough to not actually hurt him. Bruce sighed. If anyone else had heard what Tony had said about Clint, they would have torn him apart.

"God, Tony... You're gonna split apart the Avengers," Bruce mumbled, sitting back as he stared over Steve and Natasha. The situation here just seemed to constantly go from bad to worse and Bruce could see that everything was spiraling rapidly out of control and he had no idea how to fix it.

* * *

 **4606 words this chapter. I give in on trying to post on Fridays... I may be able to get back to it but for now just expect the post Saturday and when I'm late it should be up by at least Sunday. No promises as real life can throw many _fantastic_ surprises...**

 **So, on Thursday when I went to get a check up on little Darius I was told my blood pressure was a little high. Nothing too concerning for me as the day before Clint (weighing in at 45 lbs) asked me to carry him for far longer than I have since first becoming pregnant and my back was in so much pain that I had trouble walking. Usually being in that much pain causes my blood pressure to rise. But the docs just want to make sure so I have an appointment Monday to make sure things settled. If not, I might get put on bed rest. Sounds fun till I realize my job has no maternity leave, my husband doesn't have his license and bed rest basically means I can't do a damned thing... My mom was told her bed rest literally meant she couldn't even lift a pencil. Argh! I hope that doesn't happen but at least then I'll have time to write more. Also, I was finally told when my c-section is. May 31st! A Tuesday May baby, just like me! Course, I was the beginning of May but who cares, lol.**

 **Little Clint is doing well. He's beginning to say more words but still not putting them together but we've been told he needs a larger vocab before he starts doing that. Going through a lot of big changes around here soon. Early Intervention time is nearly up with Clint and so they are helping us start the process of getting our local school system checking to see if he is going to continue to need help. Sadly, Clint's current daycare is in another town and so if the school systems says he will need extra help, we have to move him out of his daycare and into a new one while he is becoming a big brother and we finally got permission to look for a new and bigger home. Gosh, the poor kid. By the end of the year he's gonna want to kill me.**

 **Well, I believe that's all the news for now so... Responses:**

 **Favorite** : Avengurs Assemblur, EpicKiya

 **Follower:** GregsMadHatter, Avengurs Assemblur, EpicKiya, ThatStilinskiGirl

 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – Thank you. Sorry to have you worried but then again, not sorry cause I got my point across, lol. Yeah, lots of moments like that to happen as everyone learns about each other. And I couldn't leave Clint unable to shoot forever. It's his coping mechanism and I for one know what it's like to go a while without something like that. I would never, no matter how mean I am, keep Clint from that unless he was being abused and tortured by villains. Sorry about Wade's little nickname for Clint but that's just the character. He does that and as much fun as I had writing him, I'm trying to keep him out of the story as much as possible as I want this story to be focused on the team and them growing together due to this experience. Yes, Little Darius is far to active for his own good. I've had random strangers comment on my suddenly moving belly. As an overweight woman, it's hard for people to realize I'm pregnant so when my stomach jumps like a foot away from my body, it kind of scares them, lol. But my c-section has been scheduled for May 31st and as long as Darius doesn't pop before then, we should be good. Thank you for your kind words and believe me, I feel the same when my inbox says that there is a review.


	7. Chapter 7

Clint (as Bruce) (and Arrow by extension) limited his interactions with the others after the fight with the others. He used JARVIS to spy on Natasha's (as Tony) condition and watched as she slowly but surely improved with Bruce's (as Steve) watchful eye and Tony's (as Thor) knowledge of his own body. Even though it had only been a less than a full day. The genius had explained it as the medication he had gotten before was extremely fast acting. Meanwhile, though Clint was barred from visiting Natasha, Tony didn't seem to mind allowing anyone else to visit her. Clint had lots of video of Steve (as Natasha) sitting by her side. How he wanted to take the soldier's place... It was killing him staying away. Even Thor (as Clint) got to visit for a bit and he almost knocked over a nightstand when Natasha stared coughing suddenly and surprised him.

Locked away in his archery range, Clint shot alone and tried to give Hulk free reign without actually turning green. Since the fight in Tony's room, the archer hadn't really left this one room. In fact, he had locked Arrow out of the range as a just in case. But the pup refused to leave the doorway. JARVIS had food dropped off outside the door by the cleaning staff. A smart idea considering Clint didn't want to see any of the others and they'd probably freak if they found out what he had been doing. Thankfully Tony had previously thought of an incident where Clint might stay in the range for a while and so there was an adjoining bathroom. So Clint was left to himself. And if JARVIS's little spy network of cameras was anything to go by, no one seemed to miss him.

By the next morning, Natasha was pretty much back to normal. She was complementing Tony on the medication and how fast acting it was. The others seemed impressed as well. Tony just brushed if off as claiming that it had to be fast considering he couldn't stay down for long. Natasha just had better be glad they never switched bodies for the testing phase. He had been knocked out of commission for almost two months. Thankfully the press considered it PTSD from Afghanistan and Stane.

"FUCK!" Clint cried at the images, tossing his bow to the ground in anger. Arrow perked up on the other side of the door but didn't try to access the range. After seeing Clint was fine, he laid back down. JARVIS quickly muted the screen so Clint wouldn't hear what else the others had to say. Natasha had been up and about for two hours and still no one had come to check on the archer. He turned away from the screen and headed toward the bathroom. There he paused at the sink to just stare into bowl as he slowly filled it with water. A grumbling sound made him look up into the mirror. He was stunned to see Hulk's reflection staring back at him. Needless to say, he didn't scream nor back away in terror. But he did check his current skin tone and found it normal.

"Cupid stupid," a deep voice grumbled. A voice that Clint easily recognized as Hulk's. But that couldn't actually be happening... Could it?

"Hu... Hulk?" Clint asked. The reflection nodded then pointed an accusatory finger at Clint.

"Cupid stupid," Hulk declared again. Clint rapidly blinked. Could he really believe that not only was Hulk talking to him through a mirror, but the big green guy thought that he was stupid? Ah hell, why not just play along.

"Okay... Stupid, how?" Clint voiced back. Hulk shook his head.

"You no get friends," Hulk hissed. Clint raised an eyebrow. "You like Puny Banner. Too 'fraid of smashing."

"Hey, I ain't afraid of smashing!" Clint cried, pointing a finger at the mirror. Hulk grunted and gave Clint a disbelieving look. At the bottom of the mirror, it looked as though he had crossed his arms. They waited like that for a few seconds before Clint sighed. "Fine... I'm afraid of smashing my friends."

"Hulk no smash pretty Betty. No smash jerk Ross," Hulk pointed out. Clint opened his mouth to retort but found he had nothing to say. Hulk hadn't hurt either person. In fact, he had only gotten better. Yeah, property damage wasn't on his mind during his time out but property damage wasn't on most of the Avenger's minds. Thor was just as bad as Hulk was and Tony was next in line. Usually Natasha and Clint traded off being the least expensive Avenger. "Hulk no stupid."

"I know... I mean, I get that now..." Clint muttered, looking away from the mirror. Hulk nodded. Clint frowned and looked back. "But what does that have to do with me being stupid?"

"Doing it wrong," Hulk replied. Clint raised an eyebrow.

"What wrong?"

"Friends." Clint narrowed his eyes at that. He was doing fine until this. "Alone no good."

"'Alone no good'? What? Bru... Banner said that he was better that way. I thought you didn't want anything more," Clint stated. Hulk shook his head.

"Friends good. Friends nice. Hulk like friends," Hulk mentioned. Clint frowned. "Puny Banner no get it. Hulk understand friends. He understand no smash."

"Well... Some friends are more fragile than others," Clint whispered, turning his head slightly away from Hulk's image. The green guy grunted.

"Baby. Saw baby... Hulk want to help," Hulk stated. Clint winced. That's what Bruce had been afraid of when Clint had been changed into a baby. Could Hulk be gentle enough? "Hulk no hurt baby."

"Well, that's what we're all afraid of. Not just me," Clint admitted. Hulk grunted once again. "We just don't want you to be holding the baby and have an accident happen."

"I no do accident. I good," Hulk said, almost sounding like he was begging. Clint groaned. As much as he wanted to trust Hulk and allow the green guy his chance, it wasn't him to decide. Considering the fight Tony had with him earlier, Clint felt like he was about to be kicked out of the tower sooner than later. A thought that both terrified and angered Clint. Not that he could blame the guy. If his kids were ever in danger of someone losing control, he wouldn't want them near.

"I can't determine anything... Tony's the one in charge of that," Clint told the big guy. Hulk's face scrunched in confusion for a second before frowning. "Tony, guy in a big red and gold suit?"

"Tin Man?" Hulk responded. Clint snorted before nodding. And he thought Tony's jokes about him were lame.

"Yeah, Tin Man."

"You tell Tin Man about Hulk?" Clint shrugged. What could he say? Hulk snorted. "You tell Tin Man."

"But... What if it doesn't help?" Clint wondered, not wanting to be blamed for Tony's decision. Hulk grunted.

"I show," Hulk replied. Clint frowned. What the hell did that mean? Hulk glanced down quick. Clint hummed before looking down as well. He was shocked to see his hand suddenly turning green. So surprised, Clint immediately clamped down on Hulk's freedom. Hulk's image vanished with a stunned cry before Hulk began fighting back. Right away, Clint could feel a headache coming on. Groaning, he stumbled out of the bathroom.

"Jar... JARVIS! Enact protocol Green Beta A!" Clint cried as he felt control slipping from him. The locks around the range clicked into place. One of the last things Clint heard was the alarm being sounded that Hulk was about to make an appearance.

* * *

"Tony, that medication is absolutely amazing!" Natasha praised, finally leaving the genius's room since the whole incident started only hours before. It felt like it could have been days but thankfully wasn't. She had never heard of medication working so fast, but right now, she sure as heck wasn't going to argue.

"The meds were specifically designed for my body and what I required. I needed something that would get rid of any cold, no matter how minor or major, and get rid of it fast. Trust me when I say this wouldn't work on anyone else," Tony stated, getting the wrong idea. Natasha shook her head and chuckled lightly. Of course the genius would be paranoid about his 'life-saving' medication.

"No, it's fine. I don't need it for me. Actually, I think this is the first time I've been sick since the Red Room first took me in," Natasha mentioned. Tony frowned, not knowing the reference of the Red Room. Steve groaned from where he sat. The poor soldier was still suffering from the cramping and stomach issues that came with a woman's monthly time.

"You sure about that? My stomach feel like revolting every time I even think about food," the soldier grumbled, leaning back in the seat to try and rest. Natasha snorted. Knowing Steve might not know that much about what is going on in his new body, she decided to elaborate.

"Your muscles are basically being turned into blood and gunk and being forced out of your body. It's not surprising that sometimes your stomach doesn't agree with food. Oh, just wait until your lower back starts hurting along with all that," Natasha informed. Steve moaned and closed his eyes. Was there any way to end this torture? And of all times, did it seriously have to start right when this happened?

"Tony, got anything for me?" Steve basically whined. He honestly hadn't felt this bad since the time before the Super Soldier Serum.

"You'll have to ask Peps. She might have something," Tony grunted. Steve looked so hopeful that Natasha felt bad. She shook her head as she moved to get closer to the soldier.

"Sorry to say this to you. But nothing she has, has ever helped me in the past," the spy mentioned. Steve stared at her. Was the spy lying to make his pain more enjoyable or was she being serious? "And besides. It's only been what? Two days?"

"Yeah," Steve sighed. Natasha shook her head before patting his shoulder. As much as she hated to admit it to the guy, it was only going to get worse. Back pain, sometimes swelling, stomach sickness all night and day, and lack of sleep would slowly add on to his current issues.

"You can handle it, right?" Steve gave her a weak smile and nodded. The issue he was having now wasn't much worse than when he had been sickly before the super soldier serum. He just prayed it would be over soon.

"Where is Natasha?" Steve's voice suddenly cried from down the hall. Natasha smirked and looked over to see Steve's body rapidly coming forward.

"Bruce," she greeted. Bruce narrowed his eyes as Steve sat up.

"You are supposed to be in bed resting," Bruce ordered. Natasha rolled her eyes and looked over to Tony who had moved to the kitchen to get a drink. He smirked and hid it with a glass of some type of alcohol before Bruce looked over. The doctor watched as Tony took a sip and then glanced down at it with a frown. Bruce shook his head and turned back to Natasha. "Just cause Tony doesn't typically rest doesn't mean you shouldn't. Speaking of, Tony, go eat something."

"I ain't hungry," Tony retorted childishly. Bruce growled lightly but it didn't have the similar desired effect as when he had Hulk with him. Natasha glanced over.

"You're in Thor's body. Thor is always hungry," the spy replied. Tony stuck his tongue out at her.

"Yeah, well I ain't."

"Tony, go eat. Natasha, go rest. Steve, take some Tylenol and go to bed," Bruce demanded of everyone. Tony grumbled. Natasha raised an eyebrow at the doctor as if daring him to order her around again. Steve moaned, not wanting to get up from his place on the couch.

"I'm not hungry," the genius snapped. Bruce looked at him. Tony was giving him a childish pissed off look. One that Bruce had already learned how to get past. The doctor sighed and gave Tony a pleading face.

"Please Tony... For me?" Tony glared at the doc for a bit before finally he snorted. Then he turned and began scrounging around for something to eat. Bruce smiled. "You can have Pop Tarts for all I care. Just, please. Eat something."

Tony said nothing in response. Just waved the doc off as he continued looking. Bruce shook his head in a mix of humor and sadness before focusing on Steve and Natasha. Neither had moved from their original positions. Actually, Steve rather looked like he was beginning to fall asleep where he sat. Bruce snorted so softly that no one really heard it as he moved to the soldier to check on him. Natasha had briefly warned the doc that Steve was having a period and that frequently, hers left her drained and sick.

"Steve, I really think you should go to bed," Bruce chided the soldier. Steve made some sort of grumbling, groaning noise before waving a hand at the doc. Apparently, he couldn't get the energy to do anything. Bruce glanced over at Natasha to see if she was worried but she was just smiling. He could only assume that this was normal then. "Natasha?"

"Hmm?" the spy hummed, glancing over to Bruce. He nodded his head toward the hall. Natasha followed the gaze for a second before understand. She shook her head. "No. I feel fine. Besides, I think Pepper had planned a group dinner tonight or something."

"No, you are going to rest," Bruce ordered. Natasha shifted around the couch and plopped down.

"Resting," she retorted. Bruce narrowed his eyes. Not what he had meant but, at least she kind-of was. Why was everyone being such a pain? Was it because they were in different bodies or was it just that they didn't care anymore?

"Fine, you stay there. I have to go find Thor and Clint," Bruce mentioned, done with this lot not listening to him. Natasha frowned.

"That gets me thinking, where was Clint? Why didn't he visit me in Tony's room?" the spy asked. Steve stiffened in his seat as Bruce winced. She turned to them. "What happened?"

"A fight between Clint and Tony," Bruce distractedly replied, wanting to get her off the subject. Natasha narrowed her eyes.

"A fight over what?" she growled.

"I'll tell you later," Bruce amended. Natasha shook her head and got up from the seat she had just sat in. Bruce moved around to try and push her back down but she moved faster. Unbeknownst to them, Steve slowly sat up, got to his feet and slunk off down the hall. No way was he going to deal with that.

"Tell me now," she snarled. Bruce shook his head.

"I told Clint that if he couldn't keep Hulk in check, I'd kick him out of the tower. That fight was just kicking him out of my room and away from my body," Tony informed, coming back into the room with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Natasha turned to focus on Tony. She was entirely tempted to beat the genius to death but she knew it wouldn't help. Hell, she understood Tony's own fear of what could happen if Clint lost control. When she first met Hulk, the big guy almost killed her. Over time Hulk learned to recognize everyone on the team. But will the big guy still remember them with Clint in control?

"You're an asshole," Natasha stated rather than hitting the genius. Tony's eyes widened, he had thought that the spy would have had a larger reaction to his words. But getting back to the point...

"What? Why? How?"

"Clint can barely hold back Hulk as it is right now. Then you go and add more pressure by saying he isn't welcome in a place he deems 'home' and 'safe'? That is what makes you an asshole," Natasha snapped. Tony frowned. "What happened to you taking care of him like your own? You guys used to be so close."

"We are... I mean, I still care!" Tony tried to defend. Natasha shook her head.

"If you cared, you wouldn't have threatened Clint with that," she said. Tony growled lightly at her before really thinking over her words. He did care... He cared for Clint but Clint was dangerous right now... And dangerous was bad around the currently pregnant Pepper. Bruce stepped forward then.

"Tony, you trust me to hold back Hulk. Why can't you trust Clint?" Bruce asked. Tony went to say something but was interrupted by the 'Hulk Alarm.' The trio jumped at the noise before Tony turned to Bruce and Natasha with an angered glare.

"You were saying?" Tony shouted at them.

"This tower is built to hold Hulk into a room. This alarm is the first stage! It means Clint had to have activated it and he's locked somewhere in the tower," Bruce announced as if Natasha and Tony didn't know the same facts. The alarm cut off so JARVIS could speak.

"Indeed. Hulk is calmly pacing about the archery range," the AI stated.

"Wait, what?" Tony disbelievingly called. JARVIS didn't reply with anything other than a live video feed of the archery range. It was true. Hulk was just pacing back and forth, grumbling and growling to himself. But nothing was damaged in the whole place. Not a target, not an arrow and nor any of Clint's now multiple bows.

"What triggered the transformation?" Bruce asked. JARVIS rewound the feeds to just before Clint turned green. The group watched.

 _"FUCK!"_ Clint cried, tossing his bow to the ground. He turned away from a screen that showed the group earlier and headed toward the bathroom. There he paused at the sink to just stare into bowl as he slowly filled it with water. After a moment, he looked up. His facial expression turned to surprise before he glanced over his skin. Natasha glanced over at Bruce, who seemed just as confused by Clint's motions.

 _"Hu... Hulk?"_ Clint asked _._ Bruce moved a step forward.

"Did he just say Hulk?" Tony wondered.

"Yeah... He did..." Bruce muttered.

 _"Okay... Stupid, how?"_ Clint voiced _._ Bruce looked to Natasha who just shrugged. She had no clue what was going on. Tony frowned.

"Who is he talking to?" the genius muttered to himself.

 _"Hey, I ain't afraid of smashing!"_ Clint cried, pointing to the mirror before him. For a moment nothing happened, then he sighed. _"Fine... I'm afraid of smashing my friends."_

Tony winced at that. That was honestly what he had been terrified for. Bruce shook his head. He knew the feeling of desperately not wanting to hurt those he cared for. Natasha turned to glare at Tony. This was what she had feared. With this extra pressure, could Clint really hold back Hulk until Wade Wilson came back?

 _"I know... I mean, I get that now..."_ Clint muttered. _"But what does that have to do with me being stupid?"_

"Are we seriously going to believe he's talking to Hulk? That isn't possible, is it?" Tony wondered, staring at Bruce as if he'd have the answer. Bruce shrugged. It might have been possible but Bruce couldn't be certain. He had never talked with Hulk but then again, Clint may be doing something that he never felt brave enough to do. Clint may actually be giving Hulk freedom.

 _"What wrong?"_ Clint continued.

"I wish we could hear the other side of this convo," Tony moaned.

 _"'Alone no good'? What? Bru... Banner said that he was better that way. I thought you didn't want anything more,"_ Clint tensed. Why was Clint talking about him? What was going on?

"Should we be worried?" Tony asked.

 _"Well... Some friends are more fragile than others,"_ Clint whispered, turning his head slightly away from the mirror _._

"Is he talking about Pepper?" Tony whispered.

"Tony, shut up," Natasha snarled. Tony frowned.

 _"Well, that's what we're all afraid of. Not just me,"_ Clint admitted _. "We just don't want you to be holding the baby and have an accident happen."_

"Oh god... Are they talking about when Clint was a baby? I... I thought he had wanted to help!" Bruce cried in horror. He had left when Clint cried and he felt Hulk stir. If only he had stayed, Hulk may have learned how to deal with it. Maybe... Maybe he should put more trust into Hulk. The big guy did seem to get what's going on.

 _"I can't determine anything... Tony's the one in charge of that,"_ Clint explained. _"Tony, guy in a big red and gold suit?"_

"Hulk knows me?" Tony mumbled, his eye brow raising in surprise. Bruce frowned. On the video, Clint sudden snorted and nodded.

 _"Yeah, Tin Man."_

"'Tin Man?' Seriously?" Tony cried in shock. He turned to Bruce. "Tin Man! I ain't from OZ!"

"Tony, drop it!" Natasha snapped.

"Sides', it's titanium alloy," Tony softly added.

 _"But... What if it doesn't help?"_ Clint wondered _._ Clint hummed before looking down. He seemed shocked to see his hand suddenly turning green. Clint gasped and the green began to diminish for a second before coming back, stronger than before. Groaning, the archer stumbled out of the bathroom.

 _"Jar... JARVIS! Enact protocol Green Beta A!"_ Clint cried _._ The alarm was then enacted and the locks on the doors clicked shut. Hulk ripped through Clint's clothes and Bruce's body before glancing around. Slowly and gently the big guy headed to the door. He pushed a finger against it. Nothing happened. Confused, Hulk tried again, harder this time. Still, the door didn't budge. Roaring, Hulk slammed his hand against it. The door was still shut.

"I... I uh, think we should go down there," Bruce muttered as the feed showed Hulk beginning to pace. Every now and then he'd check to see if the door was still locked shut. Arrow stood outside the door to the range, wondering what had happened. But thankfully he wasn't trying to get inside.

"Why?" Tony called. He really didn't want to go down and deal with Hulk. Who knew what the big guy had been saying about him? What if Hulk was mad at him for threatening to kick Clint out?

"Well, Clint was talking about you just before changing. I think he... Or... Hulk wants to talk to you," Bruce guessed. Tony stared at the doctor.

"But... What if it's a trick to get Hulk to kill me?" Tony wondered just before there was a sudden click. Slowly, the genius turned around to see the barrel of a gun pointed at his forehead. The genius chuckled, half out of fear and the other out of humor. "You don't seriously think that can kill me, do you? I'm in Thor's body!"

"Not kill you, but Thor has told me it hurts like a bitch," Natasha warned. Tony frowned but nodded in understanding. Natasha waved the gun around over Tony's face but mostly toward the direction of the elevator. "Come on, get moving."

"O... Okay," Tony stuttered. Slowly he shifted around Natasha and headed toward the elevator. Natasha followed after, still leaving the gun pointing at the back of Tony's head. Bruce stalked after them, wanting to see Hulk for himself in a calm environment. It was so highly unusual that it made him curious.

* * *

Tony, Natasha, and Bruce arrived at the archery range door the same time that Steve and Thor did. Steve and Thor looked even more shocked then the other trio to see Hulk was patiently sitting in the middle of the room, waiting. For a moment, no one said a thing. They just stood outside the room, staring through the observation window. Hulk stared right back at them. Meanwhile, Arrow (who had been there the whole time) moved to stand by Natasha. He rubbed his head against her hand and she began petting him. Pleased that she was better, he looked in on his master. Now they just needed to fix Clint.

"So, uh... Do we know what triggered him?" Steve suddenly questioned the assembled group. Tony, Natasha and Bruce all shook their heads.

"Shall we go speak with our mighty friend?" Thor wondered. Tony and Bruce looked over at him. Normally they would say yes, leave Thor and Steve to speak to Hulk but in this instance...

"Not in that body," Natasha snipped, shifting to point a finger into Clint's body's chest. Thor glanced down and saw the error of his words. He chuckled.

"Do not fear. I did not mean me," Thor replied, glancing over at Tony and Bruce who were now his own body and Steve's. Natasha followed the thunderer's gaze before smiling. Hulk wanted to talk to Tony and for once, Tony was actually in a body strong enough to take whatever the big guy could dish out. Tony stared at the duo before realizing what was happening.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Tony cried. Bruce smiled now and placed a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Come on. We're the strong ones now," Bruce told the genius before gently pushing him toward the door. Amazingly, Tony didn't resist. Together the two headed to the door. A lock click sounded just before Bruce reached for the handle and opened the door. Surprisingly, Arrow didn't try to follow after. He knew it was better if he stayed with the others. Meanwhile, Hulk only moved his attention to the door but didn't get up as Tony and Bruce entered. Once they entered and the door closed and locked behind them, did Hulk stand. "Hulk?"

"Puny Banner," Hulk grumbled, remembering that no one was who they were supposed to be. Bruce raised an eyebrow in surprise. He didn't know that Hulk could actually speak. When had that happened? A quick glance over at Tony, and Bruce could see that the genius was just as surprised.

"You talk?" Tony cried. Hulk grumbled lightly. "You can talk?"

"We've established that, Tony, thanks," Bruce muttered. But Tony wasn't done.

"All this time and you could talk! What the hell!? Why didn't you say anything before?" Tony demanded, stepping closer to the green goliath. Hulk stared at the genius. Each step that Tony took closer, Hulk's eyes narrowed. Bruce watched curious until he suddenly remembered what the others always told him. Hulk felt that Thor was a challenge and always hit the thunderer away. Now Tony was in Thor's body. What if Hulk couldn't really tell the difference?

"Tony!" Bruce warned but he was a second too late. Hulk reached back and his and prepared to strike. Tony winced but nothing happened. For a moment they all stood still. As that moment broke, Tony looked up. Hulk was standing there, his arm outstretched to hit Tony but just mere centimeters away from doing so.

"Did... Did you just stop?" Tony softly asked. Hulk opened his fist and gently touched one finger against Tony's (well Thor's) cheek.

"Hulk do gentle," Hulk growled softly even as he continued to stroke Tony. The genius just stared. "Hulk no hurt."

"I... I uh, see," Tony stuttered. A hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder, making the genius jump in fright before realizing it was Bruce. Bruce had moved beside him now.

"Is there something you want?" Bruce questioned. Hulk quickly turned to look at the doctor. He gently nodded.

"Friends."

* * *

 **4578 words this chapter. Wow, running out of pre-written chapters faster then I expected... Better get to work on that.**

 **So, ob-gyn checked me out and my blood pressure dropped back to normal. I'm good to go. But now that warmer temperatures has arrived, I have a new issue. I suffer from vertigo which means that when it is hot out and I spend too long on my feet, I can potentially pass out. Doesn't matter how much water I drink or what. In fact, just after my doctor's appointment I went to a nearby mall and while drinking a water, I passed out in the food court waiting on my order. Thankfully everything checked out fine. No long term injury or anything just overly sore from the middle of my head down. Didn't land on Darius and he is as active as ever so nothing wrong with him. But now I have to be very careful where I go and what I do.**

 **Little Clint is now speaking a heck of a lot more. His new favorite word is (sadly) shit. We were trying to teach him the word ship, but like any toddler, he can't get the 'p' out and it comes out as a 't'. But now, anytime we ask him to say a word that starts with a 's' or 'c', he responds 'shit'. Thankfully, only at home as he will properly attempt the words at daycare and in public. But my husband is helping matters. Any time he hears Clint say 'shit', he laughs, enforcing the idea that this word is funny. I usually calmly correct him (but I wouldn't be surprised if I can't keep a smile off my face). Oh well... Life with a talking toddler, lol.**

 **Responses:**

 **Favorite** : Thesamemistakes

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 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – I love playing Tony off as the asshole. I tend to normally see Clint as the ass in fanfics and I sometimes get so mad. Tony, with his lack of social skills, would normally be the first to act like an ass. Thor and his TV... Trying to pick shows was really hard. I wanted it funny, but I also wanted it believable. And of course, Clint is a prankster so it's only normal that he'd introduce Thor to these shows. Yup, gotta keep everyone learning about their new bodies and sometimes everyone is going to mess up to some degree. Thor looking through Clint's eyes was actually really difficult to write. I'm not usually that good on detail so I went to a park and wrote down what I saw around me to practice and then edited that area about three or four times before posting. Thankfully no bed rest needed. And honestly, I can't wait for Darius to be out. He is far to active for his own good and he really hates when I get Braxton Hicks contractions. I'm not a very active person but considering all the work I have to do to prepare this house for Darius, I think bed rest would kill me too. lol. Can't wait for you to review.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ \- Wow, missed you last week. Glad you could come back and give reviews to both chapters. lol. Chapter 5 - I had so much fun waiting and playing with Clint not being able to shoot but I couldn't keep that from him for long. He needs it just as much as I need my writing and I know how hard it can be to lose that. I'm glad you like my version of Deadpool. My husband just recently told me he 'lost faith' in me because I didn't have him swear that often. It was said as a joke but I was beginning to second guess my choice in not using a swear. 'Insanity is only frightening when the insane person has great resources at their disposal' sounds like me. My whole family accuses me of being insane and I use that insanity in my writing, lol. Maybe that's why it's so fun. One can only hope that work well in each other's bodies. Sometimes it doesn't work as well as it seems, lol. Chapter 6 - Well, this chapter was written while I was watching the Civil War trailer that Tony's anger in that may have rubbed off. Never mind my own pregnancy hormones getting tossed in and thinking, 'if I was Tony about to have a kid, how would I react'. And sadly, this is more than likely how I would be acting as well. Protective but mean. Yeah, can't leave a good Avenger down for too long. Besides, it's basically Natasha and Steve down right now. No problem, I love writing and seeing everyone's reactions.


	8. Chapter 8

"Friends? Seriously?" Tony (as Thor) repeated. Hulk nodded. Could it be so hard to believe that he just wanted friends and company? After all, he was humanoid. Just cause he only came out when Bruce was angry, didn't mean he didn't have other emotions. Maybe he was just angry cause he was protective. These thoughts didn't flow through Hulk's mind but they did go through Bruce's (as Steve).

"Hulk, I'm not sure that's a good idea," Bruce soothed, fearing (as usual) the worst whenever Hulk had free reign to do something. Hulk frowned. Why was having friends a bad idea? Was it just a bad idea to be friends with Hulk? If so, that really upset the green guy.

"Hulk no hurt friends! No hurt... Team. Mates," Hulk called, stumbling over the last word that he had gain from Clint's memories. He looked at the two men; hurt flashing in his glowing green eyes. Bruce glanced over to Tony before back to Hulk. Hulk followed the gaze and realized that Bruce wasn't looking at Tony but more the body Tony was currently in. Hulk grunted. "Blondie take it."

"Yes, but Hulk, he shouldn't have to," Bruce explained as if he was talking to a three year old child. Hulk looked chagrined. He hadn't thought about being nice to Thor. Thor seemed almost joyous at the attacks that Hulk normally delivered. Was bringing one's friend's happiness something that a friend should do? The green guy looked over Thor's body. Maybe... Maybe he could be nice and not hit the thunderer. But would he really want to? It was fun and Thor could take it... "Hulk, if you want friends, we all have to be able to trust you. And if you keep hitting Thor... Er, Blondie. Then we can't trust you."

"Hulk... Promise," Hulk swore, hanging his head. Tony shook his head. Clint had promised him before that he would be able to hold Hulk back and right now, he broke his promise. Tony just couldn't trust the words of anyone at this point. But Hulk wasn't watching the genius, he was watching as Bruce nodded, glad that the big guy understood. Looking back up slightly, the green guy smiled. "Friends, now?"

"No. Not 'now friends,'" Tony replied, stepping forward. Hulk growled lightly even as he turned to look at the genius. His eyes narrowed and his muscles rippled as he tried to figure out what he had done wrong. Not once did the green guy realize that it wasn't what he had done wrong but more that Tony was being an awkward friend. Tony shook his head, his own eyes narrowed.

"Why?" Hulk asked. Tony waved his hands about as he explained.

"Just cause you promised doesn't mean we automatically trust you. There are steps to take beforehand," Tony snipped, moving closer still. Hulk frowned at the genius before growling again. Getting angry, Hulk turned away from Tony and Bruce to slam his fist down on the ground behind him. Bruce smiled even as the cement cracked and fractured. It was an improvement that Hulk didn't hit Tony and instead attacked the ground. Sadly, Tony didn't see it that way. The genius scoffed and waved his hand toward the damage. "See!"

"No! Hulk want friends!" Hulk demanded, turning back to look at Tony and Bruce. His eyes glowed with a pleading desire that made Bruce feel guilty for never trusting him enough before. But Tony wasn't taking it. The genius stepped forward, getting within strike range. Bruce winced, seeing what could potentially happen. Hulk was so pissed, he might just hit Tony and that would prove Tony's point all over. But, if Hulk really wanted to try then he wouldn't. Course, considering no one had ever trusted Hulk before, Bruce had no idea what could happen.

"WE DON'T TRUST YOU!" Tony shouted at Hulk, almost baiting the green guy into attacking. Hulk snarled and reared back his hand to hit Tony but Bruce stepped forward. He wasn't going to let this happen. Tony was egging the green guy on in an effort to get Hulk to snap. Bruce was going to give him a chance to think it over.

"And we won't trust you if you don't change now," Bruce reminded sharply. Hulk looked toward the doctor. His face seemed almost surprised. Slowly, his hand dropped to his side. Bruce stepped forward, overtaking Tony and moving to stand right in front of Hulk. Tony reached to stop him and pull him back, but Bruce twisted his arm out of Tony's grasp. "Trust is hard to come by. But, if you truly wish for friends, you need to show that you can change. No hurting friends. No destroying random buildings. No excess damage."

"Hulk... Understand," Hulk grumbled. Bruce nodded and patted his arm. This was more progress than he had ever gotten before and it was certainly making him feel much better. Enough so that he might wish to actually release Hulk on his own once they switch back. Hulk gave a nod.

"Maybe, as we start trusting you more... I might let you out more. You'll be able to hang out with everyone without there being a battle," Bruce promised. Hulk gave a soft smile. Now that he had gotten his point across and his new 'friends' seemed to be willing to give it all a try, Hulk was ready to give back into the still fighting Clint. The green guy changed back so fast that Bruce and Tony had to visibly jump forward to catch the archer as he pitched toward the ground.

"Easy now," Tony coached, not knowing that Clint was unconscious at the moment. He and Bruce laid the archer down on the ground as the door to the archery range unlocked. A few seconds later, the others entered. Arrow bounded toward Clint's unconscious form and began nudging him to try and walk him. Sadly, it wasn't working.

"Is our friend well?" Thor called (as Clint). Natasha (as Tony) rushed to Clint's side, kneeling on the ground as both she and Bruce checked over him. Tony backed away, looking to Thor and Steve (as Natasha). Arrow whined but could innately tell that Clint was fine, just unconscious.

"Uh... I don't know," Tony admitted.

"That was smart of you," Steve voiced, making the genius focus on him with a confused expression. "Telling Hulk we'll be friends as long as he acts more normal."

"Well, to be honest, it's true. I want to be friends with the big guy, but I can't trust that if I piss him off, he won't hit me and kill me," Tony stated, turning back to Bruce and Clint. He seemed uncomfortable but almost worried and sincere. "I just... Just needed him to understand that I was serious."

"Verily. I would also like to befriend our green beast. Knowing he won't attack when I am near brings me great calm," Thor replied. Tony nodded. It was good knowing that. The knowledge that Hulk would try and be better was a great relief to the whole team. S.H.I.E.L.D, well, mostly Fury, was always on the rest of the Avengers about getting Hulk to stop being such a danger to the regular public. This instance would be helpful for that as long as Hulk actually tried to follow their 'demands' to be friends.

"I think he's okay. I wouldn't be surprised if he had been fighting Hulk the whole time. Fighting for that long, he's gonna be out for the rest of the night and into most of tomorrow," Bruce explained stepping away for the archer's prone body. Natasha didn't move from Clint's side. "When he wakes, he's gonna need food. And a lot of it. The amount of calories used up is detrimental to his health."

"Well, glad to know that he's okay," Steve confirmed. Bruce nodded. He had been worried that Clint couldn't handle so many transformations in a row but it was just that he tried to fight for too long. Once Clint woke from this, Bruce would have to give him more proper warnings on how to handle Hulk. Not that Bruce was even fully certain that Clint had intended for this to happen.

"Should we move him?" Natasha questioned. Bruce looked to her before nodding.

"Yeah. All the muscles get stiff after a transformation. Resting in an actual bed would help him in the long run," Bruce informed them. Natasha nodded even as Bruce returned to lift his old body off the floor. Together they started to leave. Arrow mutely trailed after them, his tail tucked between his legs in worry. Tony, Thor and Steve all watched them go.

"Do you think it's going to work?" Tony wondered. He looked to Steve. "Is Hulk actually going to be better?"

"We can only hope," Steve responded.

* * *

Bruce and Natasha brought Clint to his room on their own. Arrow trailed slowly behind like he was part of a pathetic funeral procession. Once they arrived in Clint's bedroom, they dropped him off in the bed, fully clothed and all. Natasha immediately turned to leave as Arrow jumped onto bed and lay down next to Clint's side. Bruce paused, looking over the archer. Clint was strewn about the bed, his clothes tattered.

"Should we uh... Change him?" Bruce wondered, staring at the Clint's prone form in his now ruined outfit. Natasha snorted and shook her head. As much as she wanted to do something more, Clint's reactions afterwards would not be good.

"Nah. He doesn't tend to like to be changed while unconscious. Something about someone changing him into an outfit that was too tight and then he couldn't get it off," Natasha told the doc. Bruce raised an eyebrow. He had never heard anything about that. Natasha chuckled. "He wouldn't be one to talk about it. It was during a mission that went bad. They were trying to torture him. I think it tortured the people rescuing Clint more than him."

Bruce laughed. Of course Clint wouldn't mention something like that. Not that Clint tended to share much about his life, but a mission gone wrong was something that Clint usually never talked about. Unless it was Budapest or saving Natasha from being killed. But even then, he was hesitant about the details. Bruce almost wondered if it was just Clint messing with Tony or if the archer really didn't want to talk about it. Natasha nodded toward the door. Understanding that she meant for them to leave, Bruce turned and slowly the two left. Natasha closed the door behind her.

"Are we certain that he's gonna be okay?" Natasha wondered, glancing back at Clint's room in worry. Bruce smiled at her, glad that someone other than him was concerned with Clint's wellbeing.

"Yes. I mean, mostly it was me that was unconscious after 'Hulk-ing' out so many times, but nothing bad has ever happened to me. He might just be tired for a few extra days and definitely hungry. We should have a lot of food ready for when he does finally wake. He needs to regain a lot of lost calories," Bruce pointed out. Natasha nodded and the duo headed up to the communal floor.

* * *

"You don't need to leave," Tony's voice begged from down the hall as soon the elevators doors opened to allow Natasha and Bruce access to the communal floor. They traded looks before rushing down the hall to find out who the genius was talking to. As they rounded the corner to look into the living room, the duo noted Tony standing with his back to them, blocking Pepper from leaving with her suitcase. Steve stood off to the side, looking lost and confused.

"I feel that I do. Hulk is a danger to me and the baby," Pepper answered. Tony shook his head even as Steve stepped forward to draw the CEO's attention.

"I don't think so. He just agreed to not come out and cause needless damage anymore. I think we can trust him," Steve calmly stated. Pepper nodded. She hated that it had to be this way but she wasn't just thinking of the Avengers and herself anymore. The baby inside her needed a safe home. And now, Pepper was truly beginning to see that this place wasn't a safe home.

"I want to trust him, really I do. But I just don't think I can trust the life of my unborn child on a maybe," Pepper replied. Steve winced. None of them were 100% sure what Hulk would do. There were too many unanswered questions to risk the life of an innocent.

"Clint will be crushed," Natasha pointed out. Pepper frowned, turning her attention to the two new comers in the conversation. While Natasha had a point, there wasn't much Pepper could do about it.

"And I'm sorry. But I'm not just thinking about me here. Believe me, if I didn't have to worry about my baby, I would stay and give Hulk a chance. But I just can't right now. If something happens, I could lose too much," Pepper mentioned. Tony shook his head and grabbed onto Pepper's arm to keep her still.

"I'll kick Clint out! He can go to Malibu and you can stay!" Tony announced. Pepper held her free hand up before anyone could start yelling at the genius. She slowly shook her head and slid her trapped arm out of Tony's grasp. He looked at her with panicked eyes.

"No. It has to be me. Clint is safer here. Malibu isn't ready for Hulk and here, if Hulk gets out of control, you and Bruce can stop him. JARVIS will watch over me and there is no danger for me. I'll have Happy with me and Rhodey is only an hour away. Besides, I have important Stark Industries business to attend to," Pepper explained. Tony pouted, apparently not agreeing with the plan but unsure how to voice his opinions without getting someone upset. Pepper moved closer to Tony and placed a hand on his cheek to calm him. Tony gripped her hand as if she was about to run from him in that second.

"Pepper, I highly doubt that Hulk will come back. Clint has control and Hulk wants us to be friends. He won't come out unless there is real trouble," Bruce promised. Pepper focused on him but didn't remove her hand from Tony's face.

"How can you be so sure? Has Hulk ever done anything you asked him to do? Are you willing to out not only my life on the line, but my child?" Pepper asked, pretty much demanding Bruce for a positive answer. Bruce frowned. If he was wrong, a lot more could be on the line. Pepper or the baby could die... Tony would be so grief filled that he would kick Bruce and maybe even Clint out of the tower. Hell, Tony might just kick everyone out. The Avengers would be over. Pepper shook her head when Bruce didn't immediately answer. "I'm sorry Bruce, I really am. But for the safety of my child, I need to leave."

"Please... Just, give it time to show that it won't happen," Tony once again begged. Pepper shook her head and moved her hand to Tony's chest. Slowly, she turned her attention back to Tony.

"I have to go. Why don't you come with me to the airport? We can say goodbye there," Pepper told him. Tony pouted but nodded his head. He knew now there was nothing that anyone could say to convince Pepper to stay. She was going to leave and he had just better get used to it. Slowly, he reached past her to grab her bag.

"Pepper, please, reconsider," Bruce pleaded, feeling that this was only going to end badly. Pepper shook her head as she looked back to Bruce. She at least looked upset about this whole incident but there was nothing she could do.

"Maybe, after a month or so of Hulk being good, I'll return. But right now, no one can prove that Hulk won't snap over something like someone eating the last Pop Tart and hurting me. Until that is proven, I can't be here," Pepper answered. Bruce frowned even as Tony pushed past him, dragging the suitcase over his feet as he did so. From that, Bruce could tell that Tony was blaming him. Bruce frowned, as if he wasn't already blaming himself for Hulk now this was just added on.

"Drop it," the genius hissed as he moved past. Bruce's frown deepened but he didn't get in Pepper's way as she slowly followed after. The remaining trio watched as Tony and Pepper headed to the elevator, got on and disappeared behind the closing doors.

"I can't believe she's leaving," Natasha muttered. "I thought she trusted Clint more than that."

"It's not about trusting Clint. It's about believing that Hulk won't do anything. None of us really know what is going to happen," Steve clarified. Natasha shook her head and moved around the couch to sit down in shock. Steve joined her by sitting down in his old seat a little ways away. Bruce moved to stand between them. He was just as stunned as the others and confused on what was going to happen next. The team was falling apart and it seemed like no one could stop it.

* * *

Later that night, everyone was enjoying a dinner with two missing members. The meal was mostly quiet and remorseful as each Avenger was lost in thought. Tony was already missing Pepper and his unborn child. Natasha kept glancing toward Clint's empty chair. Steve traded his looks from Pepper's empty chair, Clint's empty chair, Tony, and Natasha. Bruce was doing the same and every now and then, also catching Steve and Thor in his looks. Thor seemed to be ignoring everyone and was downing about the same amount of food he would normally do if he was in his body.

"Thor, better slow it down there. You aren't in your body," Natasha warned after accidently catching a peek at the thunderer. Thor nodded, not really listening as he continued eating. But he did at least slow down a bit. She frowned, wishing that he would take her words more seriously. The thunderer was going to get sick. Then again, she didn't realize that she probably should have worded her statement better.

"I can't do this much longer," Tony suddenly stated, dropping his fork down on his plate and looking at the others. His plate looked barely touched. Just the food was shifted around a bit. "Something needs to be done."

"What? What do you want to do?" Bruce wondered, thinking that Tony wasn't complaining about this situation. In Bruce's mind, Tony was focused on just Pepper. Tony shook his head.

"I don't know. I need to fix this... Put things back to normal!" Tony snapped, getting to his feet. Natasha glanced down and noticed that the genius had barely had a bit to eat. She frowned. As much as Tony seemed to think that his mind was invincible, if he didn't eat in Thor's body, things were just going to get worse.

"You can't fix anything unless you eat something," she growled. Tony turned on her. He looked more pissed that Thor's body had ever been pissed. She almost winced back until remembering she was in his body. Tony would never damage his body.

"SCREW EATING! I need to fix this! I... I need Pepper back," the genius called back. No one looked at him after that. He sighed and rubbed a hand through his now blonde locks. "I can't do this."

"Tony," Steve cried as the genius turned and left, leaving his plate behind. Steve stood to follow but Bruce grabbed his arm and stopped him. With a slight shake of his head, Steve sat back down. He frowned and stared at the doc, waiting for an explanation.

"Just leave him for now. A lot has happened," Bruce explained. Steve frowned but didn't argue. There was no point when Bruce was right. A lot had happened in these past few days. Tony was more than likely overwhelmed. He just lost his lover and unborn baby, he was stuck in someone else's body and there was nothing any of them could do. Not being in control of his own life was something that really tended to bother Tony, especially since Afghanistan.

It was in that moment that the call to assemble came over the speakers. Everyone jerked up to their feet before they realized it was pointless. No one really understood how to fight in their current bodies. Steve shook his head and sat down first. Thor dropped down so heavily that his chair squeaked in protest. Seeing that the others were distracted, Thor grabbed Tony's discarded plate and began eating it. Bruce sighed before gently sitting down, his head dropping to the ground. Natasha moved around her chair and pushed it in.

"JARVIS, what's with the assemble call?" Natasha asked, pissed that the AI had even thought to make it. No one could do anything at this point and JARVIS should have realized that.

"I seem to recall no one asking me not to make the calls. If you wish, I can bring the battle up on the big screen," JARVIS smartly replied. Natasha rolled her eyes but nodded. Almost right away the TV came to life with the battle that the AI had tried to send them too. The Fantastic Four was already there, along with a couple of people from the X-Men team. Apparently, they were having trouble dealing the mass of Hydra agents that were trying to invade Penn Station. While the two groups worked well individually, Reed had no idea how to command the X-Men team. Nor did Cyclops know how to command the Fantastic Four. It was like three groups of people fighting one fight without knowing who was on each other's side.

"Jesus," Steve muttered, watching a bit of the battle with Natasha. The duo got up and headed to the living room to get a better view of the TV and fight. Steve shook his head at the group. "It's like they have no clue how to fight."

"They know. It's just they aren't used to intermingling," Natasha countered even as she watched Susan turn visible after getting accidently hit by a Hydra agent being tossed aside by Storm's violent wind. Johnny's flame kept getting stolen by another X-Men that Natasha hadn't met but apparently tended to use fire as his weapon.

"We should train," Steve mentioned. Natasha looked to him and hummed in confusion. He sighed. "They can't go on like this. We need to be used to fighting in these bodies if they go down."

Mr. Fantastic suddenly went flying when he accidently stretched in the way of Cyclops's shot with his red beam. Steve winced and looked to Natasha. She nodded. He had a good point, no matter how dangerous it could potentially be. It was in that moment that they heard a loud belch. They turned back to the table. Bruce had been cleaning up all the left over plates and the ones that he hadn't gotten to fast enough were by Thor. Thor was currently blushing at the loud noise he made.

"Sorry," the thunderer grumbled. Natasha glanced over at the huge serving that Thor had eaten. Her eyes widened before narrowing on the thunderer.

"Did you eat all that food?" she questioned. Thor glanced down.

"Three extra helpings, Steve's leftovers, Tony's leftovers and his original helping," Bruce pointed out before snatching the three plates away in an effort to stop him from eating more. Thor pouted but didn't move to get another plate. In fact, he didn't even try and get up. Natasha shook her head.

"Get ready for a sick thunderer," Natasha complained. "Clint's body can't handle that much food. Your first serving had already risked illness."

"I have never had stomach complaints," Thor pride fully stated. Natasha shook her head.

"Maybe in your body, but you are currently in Clint's," she reminded once again. Thor frowned before looking down. It was almost as if he had forgotten such a dilemma.

"Ah. I see your point," Thor countered, looking back up at the spy. Natasha shook her head again before turning to leave the room.

"Did... Did I hear something about training?" Bruce inquired, wiping his hands even as walked into the living room. Steve focused on him.

"Yes. We need to learn how to fight in our new bodies," Steve replied. Bruce frowned but before he could speak, Steve waved his hand toward the TV. A quick glance allowed Bruce to watch Ben toss a rock in the way of Wolverine as they both tried to attack the same Hydra agent. "They can't last without us. We need to be prepared."

"Okay," Bruce agreed. Steve nodded, glad that everyone was beginning to join in with his plan. "When do you want to start?"

Before Steve could speak, a violent wet sound stopped him. At first no one could pin point where it came from but when Bruce, Steve and Natasha all looked clear, they realized who was left. Slowly they turned to see Thor standing by the table, his face pale. He apparently had attempted to get up and his stomach must have rejected the movement with so much food inside it. Natasha wasn't surprised to say the least.

"Thor?" Steve wondered. The thunderer looked up. His bottom lip still had some left over bile and a chunk of food. Tears were welling up in his eyes (a natural reaction that Clint normally got after throwing up) and his limbs were shaking in shock. "Jesus, Thor!"

Bruce and Steve rushed to the thunderer's side. As they rounded the table, they spotted a pile of vomit that looked like it could equal at least one of the many plates that Thor had eaten. Natasha, who hadn't fully left the room yet, returned to look over them from across the table. She shook her head but didn't get too close. Natasha sometimes (unless torturing a person) would get sick after seeing someone else get sick or even smelling it. So she stayed away.

"I warned you," Natasha stated, sounding slightly harsh. Thor nodded before going pale again and his cheeks bulge. He spun his head just in time to let loose another plates worth of vomit. Steve jumped back from the splatter only to find his stomach turning. As the soldier looked away, Natasha mentally cussed. She forgot that she wasn't in her body at this point. Tony might be able to handle it. She rushed forward, pushing Steve away. "Hey, I can't handle someone getting sick when they are sick."

"What?" Steve grunted, trying to stop himself from adding to the mess. Natasha shook her head. Her random need to be sick was hard to explain. She continued shoving Steve away.

"If I torture someone and they vomit, it doesn't faze me. But if someone is legit ill and they vomit in front of me, it upsets my stomach as well," Natasha explained. Steve shook his head. She smiled. "It's even worse during my monthly time."

"I can tell," Steve said, speaking over another of Thor's attempts at turning his stomach inside out. Bruce was still standing there, rubbing the thunderer's back. Natasha nodded before leaving Steve a good distance away. She headed into the kitchen and grabbed the largest pot she could find in easy reach. As calmly as she could, Natasha returned to Thor and shoved the pot under him just as he started vomiting again. Bruce gave her a chagrined look.

"Thanks, I hadn't even thought of that," the doc mumbled. Natasha nodded, having figuring as much. Thor gripped the edge of the pot to hold it right under his face. With her hands free again, Natasha returned to the kitchen and grabbed the full roll of paper towels. She came back and noticed Bruce trying to edge Thor away. Nodding a thanks, Natasha got down to cleaning up the vomit. "I'm gonna bring him down to medical."

"Sure. He should be fine by the morning. Once his stomach has gotten rid of everything, it will stop," Natasha explained. Bruce nodded. He was used to such illnesses. When he was in Calcutta and other such places, he called it a 24-hour bug. Never really had to last the full 24 hours, just a random illness that got a person sick. As Thor and Bruce passed by Steve, Bruce glanced down.

"You gonna be okay?" the doc asked. Steve nodded, waving the still vomiting Thor away as his stomach gurgled again. Bruce nodded and rushed Thor away a bit faster. Once Thor was gone and the smell had mostly passed, Steve felt his stomach relax. Slowly, he sat back up and turned to see Natasha methodically working on the mess by the table.

"Need any help?" he wondered.

"You gonna add to it?" Natasha sarcastically questioned. Steve smirked and nodded. She chuckled. "Thanks but no thanks."

"No problem," he muttered, leaning back against the back of the couch. She chuckled and continued cleaning. After another ten minutes or so, she got up with some sopping wet paper towels. Unconsciously, she rubbed her chest around the Arc Reactor. As she had been cleaning, a small pain from there began to get worse and worse. With a shake of her head, Natasha swore to ignore it.

Going the long way around the table, Natasha tossed them. Steve watched and didn't even comment on the liquid that dripped off the towels and left a trail from the actual incident and the trash. Natasha shook her head before heading down the hall to a small closet that held some cleaning supplies. She pulled out a mop, some bleach, and a bucket before heading back to the kitchen. "You gonna clean it some more?"

"With bleach," Natasha replied. "That will sterilize the area and hopefully get rid of the smell."

"And the stuff in the trash?" Steve wondered. Natasha glanced over at it even as she prepared the bucket with water and bleach.

"I'll toss the trash later. I think I know where the dumpster is," she answered. Steve frowned.

"There's a dumpster?" he asked, making Natasha laugh and nod. He hummed in confusion.

"Where did you think our trash went?"

* * *

 **5091 words this chapter. And is it just me, or did that ending making anyone else feel a bit ill? Lol, might just be the final month of pregnancy.**

 **Little Darius is being predicted to weigh in at about 9 and a half pounds for birth so we'll see. Went out and bought some more clothes for him. Totally went overboard but the outfits are sooo cute. Little Clint is doing well. Speaking a lot of words but no two word sentences or anything. Just met with our local school system to start an evaluation to see if he'll need help in speech and other areas that he's having difficulty. During this meeting we weren't supposed to be told if they'd offer help but the Principal mentioned that as Early Intervention said Clint needed help in multiple areas in February, she was like, 'there is no way he wouldn't get help from us'. So, he'll be attending school in September, five days a week for just the morning time. Now we need to change his daycare while waiting on him being a big brother and looking for a new house. Lots of big changes for Clint but hopefully we can spread it out enough that he'll easily get used to each situation.**

 **Responses:**

 **Favorite** : GateBreaker

 **Follower:** GateBreaker, Bubblewraith

 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – Lol, thanks. I based Hulk being able to speak to Clint on the animated TV series. In that, any reflection could be used by Bruce or Hulk (depending on who was out) and they could speak back and forth. I wanted Clint to listen to Hulk cause I feel that's what he would do but then because of Tony's threat over their heads, actually letting Hulk free would be a bad idea. I'm sorry for making Tony such an ass over and over but he's really just being a protective father. Thankfully that should end after this chapter but not sure how much better it will be considering what happened. I love all the feels that I have been able to produce. Going through each characters faults and having someone else deal with it in a new way has been so fun. Especially when the original character realizes that they should have tried it the other way a while ago. Yeah, being careful is hard when I have no idea what will truly set me off. Vertigo does suck... Sorry that you know the pains of it as well. Things are going great here now, everything coming together well just a lot of changes happening. I love hearing about your niece. Makes me feel better that it's not just my kid, lol.

 _johncorn_ \- Massive cliffhanger, lol. I didn't even think it was that bad. I've done meaner, but awesome. Thanks.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Thor (as Clint) had stopped vomiting. Clint (as Bruce) had woken back up and was in the communal kitchen trying to eat enough food to make up for the lack of calories. Thankfully most of Bruce's preferred diet was calorie rich food so Clint didn't need to eat as much as Steve and Thor would normally do. Arrow was on the floor beside the archer, also enjoying his own breakfast. Nothing seemed to be bothering the pup. Bruce (as Steve) was in the communal kitchen as well, helping Clint to get as many calorie rich foods as possible. Maybe he was overfeeding Clint a little but in his mind, it looked like his body had lost at least ten pounds since this event started. Steve (as Natasha) was in his bathroom, changing his most recent pad. Thankfully he wasn't leaking as much blood as before. He hoped that meant his 'monthly time' was ending soon. Tony (as Thor) was still locked up in his lab. He was staring at a picture of Pepper before she was pregnant. She had a happy smile on her face and Tony knew he was the one taking her picture. Natasha (as Tony) was standing outside the lab door, looking in and wondering if she wanted to go in and collect the genius for Steve's group training. The others had all agreed to do it but so far Steve hadn't been able to talk to Tony.

"J... Did Pepper make it to Malibu yet?" Tony whined. Natasha sighed. Since watching the genius for the past ten minutes, he had asked over four times.

"As I have already told you sir, she has. She shall call you when she wakes in the morning," JARVIS replied for the same amount of times. Tony nodded.

"How long as she been asleep?"

"Miss Potts arrived at the Malibu house at four am local time. It is currently six am. I doubt she shall wake until noon," JARVIS responded. Tony moaned aloud and spun around in his chair. Amazingly, he didn't notice Natasha standing outside the lab as he did so. Natasha smirked, half wondering if she should sneak up on the genius and scare him or just wait until he noticed her watching him.

"I don't want to wait that long to talk to her!" Tony moaned. Natasha shook her head and moved further into the lab. All this bitching and moaning was fun the first few times she heard it, now it was just getting annoying. The genius was still spinning his chair and didn't look up as she approached him. JARVIS also didn't see the need to point out that the spy was in the lab.

"I am sorry, sir. But Miss Potts had stressed that she wished to not be disturbed unless there is an emergency," JARVIS explained. Tony tossed his head back, now looking toward the ceiling as he continued to spin around. Natasha was standing only a foot away now.

"This is an emergency!" Tony demanded. Natasha raised an eyebrow. What emergency was the genius talking about? Everything was fine right now.

"I doubt Miss Potts would believe you missing her would be considered an emergency," JARVIS retorted, sounding slightly reprimanding. Natasha chuckled. She was still surprised by the amount of common sense that JARVIS was programmed with considering his creator seemed to have absolutely none. Must have had to do with all the time that JARVIS worked with Pepper. If it had been just Tony, well... She wouldn't have been surprised if JARVIS had tried to take over the world just cause he was bored.

"J! You're killing me!" Tony loudly wailed over the Russian's laugh. He still had no clue she was there. "Please call her for me!"

"I apologize, sir. Miss Potts' orders were specific. She is to not be disturbed unless it is an emergency. You missing her is not an emergency. There is nothing I can do," JARVIS answered. Tony groaned, upset that his AI was getting the best of him. Shaking her head once again, Natasha decided this should end and so she stepped closer to Tony. Thankfully, his chairs were always at their lowest setting so Natasha was able to stand a safe distance away from Tony's legs while leaning forward and looking down at the genius's face.

"AH! JESUS CHRIST!" Tony screamed, kicking the floor to get away from the sudden appearance of Natasha. As he was still spinning his chair, when Tony kicked the ground, he was at a bad angle and tipped his chair over backwards. He fell to the floor, knocking his head on the cement ground. Natasha winced and moved to help the genius up even as Tony struggled to get off his back and onto his feet. "Don't do that!"

"I didn't think you'd react quite so violently," Natasha mentioned. Tony scoffed as he got to his feet and backed away from the spy. Natasha rolled her eyes before grabbing the chair and righting it. Neither noticed that Tony wasn't rubbing his head in pain as he would normally have been if not for being in Thor's body.

"What do you want?" the genius suspiciously asked. Natasha raised an eyebrow in surprise. "And can you teach me to be that sneakily silent?"

"What makes you think I want something?" she wondered, ignoring the second question as Clint had once tried to teach Tony just that. It hadn't gone well. Tony gave her a sarcastic look that seemed to ask 'do you take me for an idiot?'

"You never come in to visit. In fact, only Brucie-bear ever comes in to visit me. All the rest of you have demands of me," Tony stated, crossing his arms. Natasha rolled her eyes even as she mentally thought about it. It was true. She never came down to see what Tony was doing or to even just sit and chat. Each time she came down, she had some sort of request for the genius. "So, what is it this time?"

"Well, Steve has requested team training," Natasha mentioned, keeping her voice calm and level even though she was feeling so much inner turmoil. She really needed to just visit the genius more. Getting predictable meant she was getting soft. Tony scoffed.

"'Team training?' Yeah, that never works out well for me. Best to sit it out," Tony commented, reminded of the training exercise he had with Clint only months before. Natasha nodded, having assumed that this would be Tony's excuse to get out of training.

"JARVIS, can you load up the battle video?" Natasha called to the AI, ignoring Tony's curious looks. JARVIS didn't reply but Tony's computer screens quickly loaded up with the different camera angles of the battle between Hyrda, the Fantastic Four, and the few X-Men. For a few minutes, the two just stood there and watched as the three groups fought.

"Wow..." Tony muttered, turning to look at Natasha even as she nodded.

"Steve feels that they can't last with us down. He wants us all to learn how to fight in our different bodies as a just in case," Natasha explained. Tony nodded. It made sense.

"Still, not sure if you guys want me there," Tony tried to argue. Natasha shrugged. Secretly, she knew the easiest way to get Tony to agree.

"Guess you don't want to see if Mjolnir will allow you to lift it," Natasha lightly pressed. Tony hesitated at that. For some reason, the magic hammer had never crossed the billionaire's mind. But even that wasn't enough for him to agree. He shook his head even as his mind raced to find another excuse to not go. Natasha was faster. "Don't want to test of Thor's muscles?"

"You're taunting me," Tony realized at those words. Natasha shook her head with an evil little smirk on her face. Tony winced at the wrongness of it but didn't comment.

"If I was taunting you, I'd mentioned that Clint was going to be at the training," she replied before turning her back on the genius and starting to walk away. Tony groaned. That was an evil taunt. Seeing Bruce fight had been something he always wanted and right now Tony wasn't sure what was better; seeing Bruce fight in Steve's body or watching Clint try to fight with Hulk thinking he needed help.

"Seriously? Bruce never joined in group training? Why is Clint?" the genius whined, thinking that if he could get Clint to back down then everyone would leave him alone. Natasha smiled to herself before dropping it and turning to face Tony once again. She nearly had him now.

"Clint and Bruce both feel that Hulk should actually join in. If Hulk can control himself during training, he'll be better prepared for actual fights and becoming friends with all of us," Natasha stated. Tony's eyes narrowed before glancing down at himself. Only Steve's body and Thor's body can hold Hulk back. If Tony didn't go, poor Bruce (who is stuck in Steve's body) would be the only one who could hold Hulk back. The genius groaned and turned to shut some things down. Natasha resisted the urge to do some sort of victory celebration. An urge that had only recently been hitting her since turning into Tony.

"Fine, I'm coming, I'm coming... Just give me a minute," Tony sighed. Natasha nodded and left, leaving Tony alone to meet her and the others in the training room. In the back of her mind though, Natasha wondered when she should discuss with Tony about the constant pain in her chest. Would he take it seriously or just blow it off like 'she needs a lover' or she 'suddenly has a heart and it's confusing her'?

* * *

The entire group arrived at the training room only a few minutes before Steve had originally planned for them all to appear. Needless to say, everyone was surprised that Tony was actually on time but considering Natasha never mentioned a time to meet, Tony had just gone down. Even JARVIS wasn't tempted to stop the genius from going down early, so Tony appeared on time. And yes, Tony was rather upset to find out that not only had he made it on time, but was actually early. Thankfully he again wasn't going to comment on it. He just wanted to get this whole thing over with.

"Welp, I'm here. Let's get started," Tony demanded as was his usual habit when he ran late. Steve rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to state that everyone was a little early. "Thor, where is your little hammer dude?"

"Mjolnir was left in my room when this incident occurred," Thor stated, sounding slightly confused as to why the genius was asking about the mystic object. "I would prefer it stays that way."

"Uh un. I'm Thor now. I need to train like Thor and that involved the hammer," Tony argued, turning back around to go collect the object. Clint and Natasha traded a look before the archer smiled and turned to follow after the genius, Arrow hot on his heels. Natasha snorted and also followed after. It was a bet that the duo had that Mjolnir still wouldn't let Tony lift it but Thor could. And if Thor could, Clint was totally gonna use it against Tony in the future as his body had lifted the hammer and not Tony. Thor frowned and chased after Tony in an effort to dissuade the genius from touching the hammer. The Asgardian had no idea what Mjolnir would do if Tony tried to lift it. An old warning of Odin's flashed in his mind and he feared what the result would be if Odin was right.

"Tony! No, get back here!" Steve desperately called even though he didn't move to chase after the genius. Watching everyone leave, Steve gave the remaining Avenger, Bruce, a desperate plea for help. But Bruce just shrugged. In fact, the doc was rather curious as to what would happen as well.

"Might as well go and see what's gonna happen," Bruce pointed out. Steve sighed and together the two trailed after the others. They exited the gym just as the elevator doors closed. They were going to have to take the stairs.

"You know, if Mjolnir does allow Tony to lift it, he's going to be unbearable to live with," Steve mentioned. Bruce nodded and chuckled. A few minutes later, they arrived at Thor's floor. Thor was blocking a doorway from Tony. The room beyond must have had Mjolnir. Clint stood by Thor's side, protecting his body from Tony's increasing anger at the duo. Arrow stood low, his hackles raised as he growled harshly at the genius. He was going to protect his master as much as possible, both body and spirit.

"Let me through!" Tony snapped, stepped toward Thor. Arrow barked, a harsher bark then anyone was used too but Tony ignored it. Being in Thor's body was a perk. Arrow's bites didn't hurt. Or... Well, supposedly as Arrow had never bitten anyone. It was just a theory that Tony came up with only a few seconds ago.

"No. Friend Stark, I fear that if Mjolnir does not accept my body's touch, it may leave," Thor tried explaining, crossing his arms to further block the door. Tony didn't seem to understand what Thor was stating.

"Damn it Thor. Let me just try! It won't hurt," the genius argued. Thor shook his head. Tony growled and lifted his hands as if he was going to attack the thunderer. Clint stepped forward and cleared his throat. His eyes flashed bright green. Arrow snarled, getting into a more defensive posture. Clint placed a warning hand on the back of the dog's neck. No need to have the pup bite the one man in the tower that officially had to power to kick them out, never mind being the man who was technically his father. Immediately, Arrow calmed but didn't back down.

"Don't," the archer warned, no one entirely sure who he was warning off. Tony snarled, believing that Clint was siding with Thor and not actually protecting his body from Tony. Arrow barked again and Tony's hand twitched as if he was about to smack the pup. Clint's skin flashed a light shade of green but returned to normal when Tony did nothing. Natasha stood against the far wall, watching. Bruce and Steve joined her.

"How's it going?" Bruce wondered even though the sight pretty much explained itself. Natasha shrugged.

"Thor won't let Tony try, Tony is getting pissed, and Clint is trying to make sure Tony doesn't do anything stupid. My question is, why doesn't Tony go through the wall?" Natasha uttered. Bruce nodded. It was a good question.

"Aren't these walls Hulk proof?" Steve questioned.

"But proven to not be Mjolnir proof," Bruce alleged. Natasha glanced at Bruce. The doctor shrugged. "We see Thor call Mjolnir from a different room all the time. I don't see why Tony doesn't try that."

"He has," Natasha said, laughing lightly. "Mjolnir didn't even budge."

"Why is he still trying?" Steve muttered, mostly to himself. Natasha shrugged.

"Something that Thor said. Mjolnir might not recognize who is Thor unless Tony or he touches it. But Thor fears that Tony touching it might make Mjolnir feel the need to return to Asgard," Natasha pointed out.

"Friend Stark, please. Discontinue this course. Let us return to fight in the gym," Thor loudly begged.

"No! We've all tried before. I want to do it again!" Tony demanded, sounding more like a whining child than a genius at the moment. Arrow barked again but it didn't faze anyone.

"Tony, leave it. Let's all go back downstairs and start training," Steve half ordered, half pleaded. Thor gave Steve a relieved look that distracted him long enough for Tony to slip past, pushing the thunderer partly out of the way. Arrow barked and nipped at Tony but missed. Thankfully, Tony didn't use much strength to hit Thor and so the thunderer only stumbled into the wall and was not hurt. But as the thunderer turned around to catch Tony, they all found he was too late. Tony had grabbed onto Mjolnir's handle and was tugging at the stubborn hammer. Arrow continued barking until Clint placed a hand on his neck. Figuring his job was done; Arrow stopped and looked back at Clint for some sort of praise. Clint was too distracted to say anything to the pup but thankfully Arrow didn't seem bothered.

"No!" Thor roared, rushing into the room. He caught Tony off guard when their bodies slammed into each other. Tony released Mjolnir and both men dropped to the ground. As they turned back, Mjolnir lifted into the air by itself and then shot through the nearest window to vanish high into the skyline. For a moment, everyone was silent.

"That... Didn't happen last time," Tony mumbled. Thor pushed the genius away from him as he moved to get to his feet.

"Mjolnir does not recognize what has happened. It understood that the body touching it was me, but my body was not joined with my soul and worthiness. In its confusion, Mjolnir believes me to have died and has returned to my father," Thor explained, sitting on the ground in anger and disbelief. "It shall not return until I call it when I am joined with my rightful body."

"Oh..." Tony garbled. Upset that Tony wasn't apologizing, Thor rushed to his feet and stormed out of the room. Knowing his body well, Thor couldn't take out his anger on Tony and attacking Tony's body didn't seem right as Natasha was the one in there. Bruce sent a glance toward Tony that the genius couldn't interpret before the doc followed after the thunderer. Steve sighed and crossed his arms over his chest; a less intimidating look in Natasha's body. In fact, Tony had to fight to keep his smile off his face as Natasha shook her head and walked after Thor and Bruce. Clint looked into the room.

"Boy, you certainly like causing fights with everyone. Maybe you should be a villain instead," Clint commented before turning around and leaving. Arrow huffed at the genius, almost warning him off from following them, before he also turned and left. Tony shuddered. Slowly, he turned to look over at Steve, the now only remaining member of the group.

"What?" Tony asked him. Steve shook his head.

"If you don't understand what you did, then there is no way I or anyone else could explain it to you," Steve replied even as he started walking to the door. "Met us in the training room in a half hour. If you're late, I'll have JARVIS lock down your lab for a week."

"You can't do that," Tony childishly told the captain. Steve raised an eyebrow.

"Sir, I apologize but Miss Potts has given Captain Rogers her security override as a precaution. I am afraid, Captain Rogers can do as he threatens," JARVIS informed his creator. Tony's mouth dropped in shock at the betrayal from his lover.

"Why would she do that?" Tony cried. Steve shrugged.

"Bring it up with her. I didn't ask," Steve stated before finally leaving himself. He had to spend the next half hour making sure that everyone else was going to be okay for team training. Mostly, he had to make sure that Thor wouldn't damage Clint's body as he attempted to attack Tony and that Clint could keep Hulk back if Tony messed up and hurt Thor.

* * *

Half an hour later, Steve was certain that Thor and Clint wouldn't do anything irrational when it came to Tony. The same wasn't said for Arrow. With no way to properly rationalize right and wrong with the pup, Steve made certain that as they all entered the training room, Arrow was locked outside. Needless to say, after getting riled up earlier with Tony, Arrow did not like this course of action. He kept barking at the door over and over. His paws and claws echoed through the room as he scratched at the door. Only Clint seemed bothered by the constant noise.

"Do you really need to do that?" Clint wondered, guiltily looking back at his dog trying desperately to get into the room. Steve nodded, having not explained his reasoning before doing so.

"I'm sorry but I can't trust Arrow to not attack us in the heat of the moment," Steve replied.

"He's been fine with Clint and me before. Never cared, even when I drew blood," Natasha mentioned. Steve glanced over at her.

"Have you ever riled him up before a training session?" Steve countered. Natasha paused to think about that. Very rarely had she interacted with Arrow before a training session with Clint. In fact, usually the trio woke up, had breakfast in the communal kitchen, and then headed down for training. Arrow was usually sedated and calm. Looking at the pup now, Natasha could see that Arrow was still distrustful of Tony and wanted to protect his master. Even if that master was technically now Thor. "With him like this, I don't want him attacking us if someone makes a mistake and hits too hard or causes a cut."

"Can't we just let him in but tie him to a bench or something?" Clint muttered, feeling horrible that his dog was outside the door getting stressed out. The duo hadn't been together long but Clint had fallen head over heels in love with pup and vice versa. It was cute in a certain way.

"I'm sorry Clint. But I feel we are all much safer if he is out there. Not much I can do about it," Steve answered, not sounding guilty at all. Clint frowned but dropped the subject even as he turned to watch the others. He was already on a thin line of getting kicked out of the tower. No need to have more people on Tony's side.

"So, when are we getting on with this training thing?" Tony called, drawing attention away from Clint and Arrow. Steve nodded, pleased for the conversation change. He moved to the center of the training room, the area that JARVIS could set up as a holographic display that would involve a lot of the other objects in the room but not touch the weight and treadmill areas that was off to the side.

"I spent most of last night fixing a training regime with JARVIS. I believe that together, we have produced a perfect regime to help everyone learn each other's moves fast. So we are going to train, every day for at least two hours. I would prefer two hours in the morning and then two hours in the afternoon," Steve explained.

"Uh, yeah, no... That ain't gonna work for me. I need my personal time," Tony demanded, raising his hand in the air like a child in school. Steve frowned.

"Oh come off your high horse," Clint groaned. "We all have lives."

"Yeah, and I know yours in mostly spent in here," Tony snipped. Clint stepped forward. If one looked clearly they could see the hurt and guilt hidden behind the glaring anger.

"Drop it," Steve commanded, moving between the two. Clint backed down, sick of all the infighting between the Avengers even though he understood this time it was mostly his fault. Tony though... Well, considering he and Steve had never really gotten along, Tony kept going at the Captain.

"I am not going to train for as many hours as you want," Tony growled. He leveled a dark glare at Steve, almost daring the Captain to try and force him to do four hours' worth of training a day. Steve sighed and pretty much backed down.

"I was explaining that while I would prefer two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, I will settle for only two hours a day," Steve continued. Tony gave him a dark chuckle.

"Yeah, that's still a no," Tony declared. Clint snorted and shook his head. It wasn't a surprise that Tony would argue. Steve could have said he only wanted to train for a half hour a day and Tony would still say that was too much.

"Tony please..." Bruce began but Tony held up a hand and stopped him from speaking.

"No. I have important work to do and wasting my time down here doing some stupid little training exercise is pointless," Tony replied. Bruce shook his head. While it was true that Tony was getting backed up in Stark Industries projects, being in Thor's body was not doing the genius any favors. Constantly destroying keyboards and now switching to the malfunctioning holo-keyboard made Tony's normal work slow significantly. If he wanted any hope of catching up to what he normally did, Tony would have to work 24/7. No breaks, not eating, no sleeping, nothing but working. And even then he might not actually have a chance.

"Tony, this is serious," Natasha started but Tony shook his head.

"Look. I get that some of us need training. But not me," Tony snapped.

"I fear you are incorrect, Man of Iron," Thor stated. Tony turned to yell at him but the thunderer held up a hand to stop him. Surprised at Thor's sudden brashness, Tony waited. "I as well need training or my body will not be ready for battle. While I do not train as much as others, in Asgard we train all day long, only breaking for food and sleep at night. There is nothing else."

"Yeah, well Thor buddy, we ain't in Asgard. Here on Earth, we have jobs. Things to do. Things that mean I can't waste my time with training," Tony said. Thor shook his head.

"Tony, you are in an unfamiliar body. When we go out to fight, you won't be in your armor. Natasha will be," Bruce finally pointed out. That had normally been the main reason the genius had gotten out of training. He always had his armor. But without it, Tony would have to train and actually work and when out in battle, actually fight. The genius paled at the realization.

"Oh... Well... Shit," Tony pouted.

* * *

Training went as well as expected. Steve mostly worked with Bruce, Natasha, Thor and himself. Tony tried at one point to get involved and accidently sent Bruce into a wall. The tense standoff as they all waited for Bruce to Hulk out afterwards made Tony not want to try again until he could control Thor's strength. Clint didn't get involved in the fight either as they all feared Hulk might not understand the idea of training just yet. But he was nice enough to shout out pointers to everyone as he walked the edge of the training area.

"Next time, I want Hulk involved," Steve told the archer as everyone slowly began to disband. The archer paused in petting Arrow. After getting locked away from his master for over two hours, Arrow was rather giddy and wired. "I also want Tony but I'll accept the hit for now. Only Bruce can train with Tony and right now, he isn't ready."

"Well, Hulk could but... Do we really want to tell Hulk to hit someone after just explaining that it isn't nice to hit a friend?" Clint wondered. Steve frowned as he thought about that. Hulk was very simple minded, almost like a child. They were finally getting a relationship started with the green guy. Could Steve ruin it by demanding Hulk to train with the others?

"Do you think he'd understand the difference?" Steve asked. Clint paused to think about it even as he fought to keep Arrow from jumping all over him in excitement. While he hadn't much experience with Hulk's personality, Clint could pretty much guess. Slowly, he shook his head no.

"He won't understand. Well, he may but he might not understand when we say training is over. If we tried to involve him right now without just a calm peaceful night and taught him the idea of training, he'd think that would be normal. Whenever he came out it would be fighting... Fighting a battle without holding back or fighting his so-called friends and trying to hold back. We need him to have a night or two to just hang out with out. A movie night or game night. Anything but training," Clint described. Steve nodded. He had assumed as much.

"JARVIS," Steve called out, turning away from Clint. Figuring Steve was done asking him questions, Clint returned his attention to the hyperactive pup.

"Yes, Captain Rogers?" the AI answered.

"I want to schedule a movie night. Something good that Tony won't want to skip out on," Steve requested. Clint chuckled in humor. Of course Steve would turn the archer's words into something like an exercise.

"I do believe Sir will only join you if the original _Star Wars_ movies are involved. But Agent Romanoff has expressed her extreme dislike of those films. If you wish for a game night, Sir will only play _Risk_."

"Hulk wouldn't understand the rules of that game. Heck, I've had some trouble understanding it," Clint mentioned, having finally calmed Arrow down enough to pay attention. Steve sighed. "What if we watched a movie in the lab?"

"I do believe Sir would not be inclined to escape no matter what the movie and as long as the game is not _Monopoly_." Steve smiled.

"Okay, let's go pick a movie and invade Tony's lab!"

* * *

 **4939 words this chapter. Sorry for being late again... We are currently house hunting so Friday we had house viewings all night after work and Saturday was open house/clean our house day. Not much time to get upstairs to the computer to edit and post.**

 **Little Clint is doing well. He is imitating a lot of new words and some of them we are finding to be part of his daily vocab. Darius is as active as ever. In fact, this morning even though the entire rest of the house was asleep, Darius wanted to wake me up and not let me sleep in past 7. 'Happy Mother's day to me'. Lol... Speaking of, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all those out there who are mothers or soon to be mothers or four legged mothers. No other news really to give on this end. Family is doing well, as I said earlier, looking for a new house, and looking for a new daycare as Clint's current one is not going to be in his new school district. Busy, busy, busy.**

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 _sammygirl1963_ – Thank you for the kind words. Need someone level headed to stop Tony from acting like a jerk and Bruce seemed to be the only person that Tony would actually stop and listen to. And yes, Tony acting like a jerk does have a point and sadly, uses. Trust me, while I love making Tony acting like a jerk, I feel bad every time I do it. I feel like I'm making him one sided but these jerk moments have their points. As for Pepper leaving... This mostly had to do with the fact that I had no plans for her and I didn't want to have to interject time line moments of Tony going to her obgyn appointments and such. Also as a very pregnant mother myself, I felt that if I was in this situation with an easy out, I might take it myself. Natasha's illness around well... Illness is actually something that both my husband and I deal with. Thankfully with Little Clint we have learned ways around it. My husband will take Clint into the bath to get cleaned up and I'll clean up the mess. Normally Clint gets sick in bed (and will sometimes sleep in it till morning as he doesn't feel the need to wake mommy and daddy when he gets sick) so it's usually pretty contained. Trust me, I understand how disgusting it is. Especially the side note of Clint will sleep in his sick... But when he gets ill when my husband and I are asleep usually it sounds like he's coughing so (if we wake) we check the black and white monitor to make sure he's fine and if he doesn't cry, go back to sleep ourselves. The one night we went down to check on him after an incident like this, it actually was a cough and he was awake for the rest of the night because we opened to door to see if everything was fine. Clint is also one to night cry out for a diaper change so we weren't too surprised that he doesn't cry out about sleeping in well, vomit (no matter how disgusted we are by it).


	10. Chapter 10

"No... No, no, no, no, no, no!" Tony (as Thor) cried as soon as Steve (as Natasha) and Clint (as Bruce) began to drag a couch into his lab. Arrow happily bounced along behind then, sometimes running under the couch, other times jumping onto the couch and hindering the men's progress. But nothing Clint could say or do would stop the pup. Bruce (as Steve), who had been working at a nearby table, stopped and watched them for a moment. He half wondered if he should go over and help, or at least stop Arrow. But he didn't move. "What are you doing?"

"We are going to have a movie night for Hulk," Steve answered even as he tugged at the couch. Clint stumbled a step to try and catch up as Arrow slipped past his legs, making him not only miss a step but almost drop the couch. Bruce's body was so much weaker than his that he hadn't expected that when he agreed to help. The archer knew Natasha's strength. She was secretly almost as strong as Thor and Steve. Not that she tended to use her strength as she tended to fight more defensively than offensively.

"Here? Are you insane?" Tony demanded, his voice going higher in his dramatic shrills to stop everyone from coming in with more things. Steve and Clint ignored him. Arrow stopped and turned to the genius, his head tilted in curiosity. Unsure what made the genius upset, he sat down and waited for a command. He was getting used to the entire team and usually when Tony took that type of voice (even though it seemed strange to hear it come from Thor's body), the genius was upset over something. Half the time, that something was something that Arrow had done, like chewing up some tasty Armani leather shoes.

"Tony, you did build this lab with Hulk in mind. If he gets out of control we have multiple ways to not only escape but to put him to sleep," Bruce pointed out. Tony glared at him as Steve and Clint finally placed the couch down across from the only blank wall in the lab. Steve nodded toward a table in the way and Clint shifted to move it. The duo were pretty much set on ignoring Tony and letting Bruce keep the genius calm.

"No! Don't move that!" Tony shouted. Arrow jumped and rushed out the lab as if he had done something wrong. He stood in the doorway, watching as Clint froze having feared that Tony had a good reason for telling him not to move the item. A quick glance at Bruce showed that Tony was probably just complaining to complain and there was actually nothing wrong with moving it. Sighing, Clint went back to moving the table. "No! STOP!"

"Tony, this is going to happen. There is nothing you can do to convince me otherwise," Steve commanded as if it would help matters. Tony pushed away from his desk so roughly that the rather hefty item lifted onto his back legs before crashing back down on the floor. Clint and Bruce flinched at the noise and focused on the duo. Steve stood up, almost preparing himself for a fight with the genius. Tony walked around his desk to get closer to Steve.

"This is my home. You are here as my guest. Do NOT dare think that you can control me," Tony growled. Steve deflated, rethinking over his words. Bruce slowly and quietly got back to work, trying to act like he wasn't listening in. Clint moved to the door and began unconsciously petting Arrow who was nervously watching Steve and Tony fight. As long as his master wasn't involved in the fights, Arrow tended to watch from the sidelines.

"Tony. I understand you invited us to live here with you and we have no technical control over you. But, this is my team. You are on my team. And being on my team means that I do have some control over you," Steve began to explain. Tony opened his mouth to protest but Steve held a hand up to stop him. Amazingly, it worked. "Even as a consultant to S.H.I.E.L.D, you are still an Avenger. And you all agreed that I was to be the leader. As leader of the Avengers, I can command each person who is on the team. Now in this leadership, I have various roles and different commands that I have to follow. One thing I wish above all else is that we all get along both in the field and at home. To do that, we have to train together, eat together and basically live together."

"We already do that. Why do you need to invade every one of my spaces?" Tony snapped, sounding more upset then angered. Steve sighed not really understanding the main reason Tony was upset. As a poor kid from Brooklyn, Steve always had to share but Tony, a single rich kid, was used to be alone and having areas to call all his own.

"I am not trying to invade your space. I am only trying to do what is best for the team. Right now, we need a calm night with nothing happening for Hulk to learn about friendship. That means we need the entire team. As you made mention before training this morning, you are falling behind in your work. I felt it best for you if we moved our movie night into the lab so that you can continue to work and still be here for Hulk," Steve described. Bruce chuckled lightly in the background. It was sound reasoning. No way for Tony to come up with an excuse.

"But... This is my lab! My personal space!" Tony whined, trying to come up with any excuse. It sounded rational in his mind but as Steve looked over to Bruce, Tony knew he was losing.

"Tony, you can't really call it a personal space when you invite others to come into it. A personal space is an area that you call your own. That no one but you is allowed into," Bruce argued.

"Unless you really trust them," Clint muttered, sounding almost hurt. Arrow licked the archer's hand to try and soothe him. Clint smiled to the pup even as Tony opened his mouth to defend himself against the others before realizing how this was turning. Slowly, he let out a deep, deep sigh. Having already hurt Clint so many times, Tony couldn't keep this going. Especially if he didn't want to forever damage their newly formed father/son relationship.

"Okay... Sure..." Tony finally mumbled. He backed away before waving his hands about. "Fine. Can't argue that."

"Tony. We aren't trying to bother you. It's just this is for the best of the team," Steve replied, almost trying to make himself feel better about what he was doing rather than trying to make Tony feel better. Clint rushed into the room, Arrow refused to follow. He whined at the door. Again, Tony waved his hands about in a dismissal gesture. Steve went to speak again but stopped when Clint placed a hand on his shoulder. Confused, Steve looked over in time to see Clint shaking his head no. Realizing that Clint was telling him not to dig a deeper hole, Steve nodded and together the duo walked off to go get more things for the movie night. As soon as they were out of the lab, Clint looked back to Steve.

"Look, I get that you really want this movie night and the whole team bonding thing but Tony was left alone most of his life. He only really got social interaction when in college and even then, he had to initiate it. This isn't something he is used to. Pushing it on him will more than likely only pull him further away from us. Be careful," Clint warned. Steve frowned, thinking over the archer's words. While Clint had a point, there was seemingly no other way to make Tony hang out with the rest of the team outside of a battle. It wasn't healthy for any of them. Arrow slowly stepped up to Steve and licked his hand. Steve glanced down and realized the dog was asking permission to be petted. Sighing, he did such.

"It's not just the movie night or even team bonding. Tony needs interaction outside of just Bruce. Heck, even the interaction he gets with Bruce is limited. Both of them get so lost in their work they don't pay attention to anything else around them. By making them join in different events throughout the day, it makes them aware of their surroundings," Steve explained. Clint laughed making Arrow turn his head to the archer and Steve miss petting his head. Steve quickly glanced down at the pup before back to Clint.

"Steve, these men are scientists not soldiers. You can't just train an engrained habit by making them hang out with people. Besides, the amount of self-awareness that we have is something that Tony and Bruce will never learn," Clint replied before turning and walking to the elevator. Arrow yipped and followed after. They still had to collect another couch to comfortably fit everyone. Steve sighed. There was no way this could be spun to put the captain in a good light. No matter how you looked at it, he was basically in the wrong.

It took an extra hour for Clint and Steve to finish setting up the movie area with snacks, seats, blankets, drinks and other odds and ends while not interfering with Tony's work. Most of the time was spent keeping Tony happy. Anytime they brought something new in or tried to move an object in their way, Tony would stop his work and freak out at them. Steve was much calmer each time and Clint didn't have to warn the captain again about how to deal with the genius. Course that didn't mean Tony was any calmer. In fact, the more the duo brought, the more he got agitated and upset. Thankfully for Clint, Bruce was the one in charge of calming Tony down.

"Tony, calm down," Bruce warned at one point when the genius verbally lashed out against the archer and the captain. Tony turned to face the doctor even as Steve and Clint slunk out to go get a few more items and the others.

"Why! Why do I have to calm down!? They're the ones invading my space!" Tony cried. Bruce shook his head.

"Tony, please. You have a private lab downstairs. Never mind your bedroom, 'Hall of Armors,' and office that you never go into. This lab is open to all of us. You said that when you first showed us around," Bruce soothed. Tony scoffed. He had no idea that those words could bite him in the butt as badly as this. The genius detested all these group bonding things that Steve set up and no matter what he said, he could never get out of them. In fact, most of the time the others made him seem like the bad guy for trying to get out of them.

"Yeah well, that was when everyone was in their right body," Tony snapped. Bruce sighed before looking to his work. Suddenly a memory kicked in and Bruce realized why Tony was freaking out.

"The last time someone other than me entered here, it was Clint," Bruce muttered, more to himself in theory then to Tony. Tony sighed and nodded. It was true but the genius was not liking where this was headed.

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out," Tony growled. Bruce startled, not realizing he had spoken out loud. Guiltily, the doc looked over to Tony. The genius was focused on typing again but Bruce could see that he had a faraway look. A look that he got since the incident of turning Clint into a kid. Bruce put down his work and moved to the end of his table.

"What happened to Clint was an accident. Something that can't be repeated again," Bruce mentioned. Tony snorted and looked over at Bruce.

"With the amount of dangerous chemicals we have in this lab on an almost daily basis? Never mind the amount of times that I'm working on someone's weapons or testing armor... God, I think the lab is more dangerous than the kitchen or whatever the government has listed as the most dangerous place in a household," Tony sarcastically said. Bruce sighed. The genius had him there. But...

"The safety precautions we take now are much better than before," Bruce calmed. Tony snorted.

"Yeah but can you promise me that nothing will happen? That Hulk won't freak out at a violent scene in whatever movie we watch and hit that container of chemicals over there?" Tony wondered, pointing to a Hazardous Material cabinet near one of the couches. Bruce glanced over at it and winced. If Hulk swung his arm wrong, that cabinet would be obliterated. Sadly it was unable to be moved as it was screwed into the floor and partially built into the wall.

"Hulk can sit on the other couch, or even the floor in front of the TV," Bruce suggested as if where the green guy sat made a difference in the lab. Tony shook his head. That wasn't what he meant.

"And if the violence sends him into a rampage? The way those couches are set up, no one would be able to escape except you and me. And seeing as we are in Steve's and Thor's bodies, we need to be closest to him," Tony snarled. He waved his hand over the scene before him. "This is a death trap waiting to happen! We can't let them do this!"

"Tony, what are you so afraid of? Hulk being released in the lab never bothered you before," Bruce called. Tony spun to look at the doctor.

"That's cause you were Hulk!" he shouted as Clint, Arrow and Natasha (as Tony) rounded the corner. Clint froze in the hall, just outside of the two scientists' view. Natasha took a few steps to the door before Arrow's whine made her look back. Clint was so still he didn't even look like he was breathing.

"Clint?" she whispered. Clint still didn't move. Arrow nudged his head against the archer's hand but still, Clint did nothing.

"So, you trust me as Hulk but not Clint? Why? What makes him so different?" Bruce asked in the lab, drawing Natasha's attention away from the archer. She frowned before looking back at Clint. The archer almost looked horrified. Inside, Tony shrugged. Bruce frowned. "What is so hard about trusting Clint? You took care of him for almost a year. Pepper said you two grew very close."

"I know!" Tony snapped, harsher than he intended. Bruce flinched at the ferocity. Seeing his friend jump at that, Tony sighed deeply. "I know... Trust me, I've been thinking about this since we first found out that Clint doesn't seem to have control. It took you almost a year to stop Hulk from coming out at every little thing that set you off. And... Well, I just feel like Clint doesn't have that same amount of control with just you saying a few words to him."

"Clint is doing much better than I ever did. He skipped months of trying to figure things out... Months that I was being chased down. He's safe here. No one wants to attack him or use Hulk or anything like what happened to me. It took me a year to learn control because it took me that long to escape Ross," Bruce explained. Tony sighed again, looking away from Bruce. The doctor frowned before moving away from his desk and heading over to Tony. Once there, he gently placed a hand on the genius's shoulder. Tony didn't respond. "Clint and now even Hulk needs our support."

"I'm... I'm not sure I can give it," Tony muttered. Outside, Clint's eyes widened before he was turning around and rushing to the elevator. Natasha raced after him.

"Clint! Clint, wait!" she cried loud enough for Tony and Bruce to overhear. Arrow barked once and gave chase as well. Thankfully for Clint, Thor (as Clint) and Steve had just arrived as he reached the elevator. They stepped out for Clint to slid in and slam a random level. Natasha couldn't squeeze past Thor and Steve in time to also get on. Neither could Arrow, who barked in consternation at being left behind.

"Clint?" Steve asked, wondering what the archer was doing. The doors closed without a word and Clint was off.

"Shit," Natasha swore before rushing to the stairs.

"What happened?" Steve called, trying to get her attention before she completely disappeared. Natasha ignored him as she slammed the stairwell door open and she ran through with Arrow right on her heels. The pup would easily track Clint between floors and knew right away to go down and not up like Natasha had originally thought. As the door closed behind her, Steve glanced over at Thor as if the thunderer had more answers than him. Thor shrugged. Unsure what else to do, the duo headed to the lab. Tony was whacking his head on his desk and Bruce was standing off to the side with a deep frown and unimpressed glare. "Do I want to know?"

"Clint overheard a conversation that I had with Tony about why he doesn't trust him," Bruce stated as blandly as possible. Steve mouthed 'oh,' before the statement fully hit him and then he frowned.

"I am unsure I understand," Thor said before Steve could. Bruce sighed as Tony finally stopped hitting his head after a particularly large crack.

"I think I cracked the desk," came Tony's muffled voice. Bruce snorted.

"Not surprised," he stated just before Tony shrugged and went back to hitting his head. Sighing again, Bruce looked to Steve and Thor. "Tony started getting upset about the idea of the movie night being held in the lab. He felt that if Hulk got out of hand that no one would be able to get away before getting hurt or worse. When I asked him why he didn't trust Hulk with Clint, Tony couldn't answer and then he stated he isn't sure he can help Clint keep Hulk in check right now. Clint overheard some or all of the conversation and then I guess ran off."

"Oh," Steve replied, the frown deepening on his own face.

"Shall we stop our Iron Friend?" Thor wondered, glancing over to Tony. The genius was still hitting his head and the desk's crack was getting larger and larger. "My body may take many beatings, I fear for our friend's mind."

"Tony stop," Bruce demanded. Tony paused.

"No," he mumbled before going back to hitting himself. Steve smirked and patted Thor's shoulder.

"The desk will break long before anything happens with Tony," Steve soothed. "Let's go find Clint."

* * *

Clint made it all the way down to Bruce's Hulk out room without any interference. Natasha and Arrow joined him on the floor just in time to watch as he closed the door and locked it. The spy frowned and slowly moved to the window as Arrow rushed over to begin pawing and whining at the door.

"You're upsetting your dog," Natasha declared to Clint with the intercom. Clint scoffed and moved to the other side of the room. He sat down in the far corner and curled up. Natasha rolled her eyes. "JARVIS, can you open the door?"

"Sadly, Agent Romanoff, I do not have control over Hulk's Playroom. Sir and Doctor Banner felt it best that only Doctor Banner would have the ability to open the door from the inside once it is locked," JARVIS replied actually sounding upset as well. Natasha sighed.

"Clint, unlock the door," she hissed into the intercom. Clint shook his head as Arrow gave out a low moan that made Natasha raise an eyebrow. "Your dog is dying."

"Arrow is fine," Clint softly called. Natasha sighed before glancing at Arrow. The pup was still pawing gently at the door but was now lying on his belly. He gave out a pathetic whine.

"Nope, he's gonna be dead in a minute," she disclosed. Clint snorted.

"Don't kill him cause he's pissing you off. Sides, you were the one who got him for me," Clint stated. Now it Natasha's turn to snort. She shook her head.

"No, it's his owner that's pissing me off," Natasha clarified as the elevator behind her opened. She glanced back to see Thor, Steve and Bruce getting off. Her eyes narrowed at Bruce even as he mouthed an apology. After a moment, she nodded in forgiveness. "Clint, open the damn door."

"Nat, just leave me alone," Clint answered.

"He locked himself in there?" Steve wondered. Natasha nodded.

"I based the lock system on if I could tell that I was losing control or felt like I hadn't gotten it back from Hulk. No one can open it but Clint," Bruce told the others. Natasha nodded.

"JARVIS said as much," she replied.

"So... How are we going to get him out?" Steve asked. Natasha and Bruce both shrugged.

"Will our archer friend be okay?" Thor inquired.

"Who knows," Natasha admitted.

"I'm fine Thor," Clint announced. Natasha grimaced. Apparently the intercom button had gotten stuck and now Clint could clearly hear them. Thor took that as an okay and turned to leave. With Clint's next statement, the thunderer went to check on Tony and his body. He didn't get far as JARVIS had sent the elevator away once everyone had arrived. "Just... Give me a bit."

"Are we still going to watch the movie?" Steve questioned. Natasha and Bruce turned and glared at him. He shrugged still not seeing the issue with asking. Inside the 'playroom,' Clint chuckled.

"Yeah... Yeah. Gotta prove Tony wrong... Hulk can handle a movie without damaging anything," Clint revealed. Steve smiled as Thor nodded, proud of Clint's decision. Bruce chuckled while Natasha rolled her eyes. Slowly, Clint got his feet and began to cross the room. Arrow perked up at the increased scent of his master. With a deep sigh, Clint unlocked the door and stepped out. Natasha was there waiting for him. She smacked him upside the head even as Arrow tried to jump into his arms. "Ow."

"Idiot," she muttered before walking away. Clint smirked.

"I think we should let Hulk out down here so we can explain things to him before going upstairs," Bruce suggested. Clint nodded before looking to Steve for confirmation. Steve paused before agreeing as well.

"Yeah. In case Hulk gets confused we can always push him into his playroom," Steve added. Clint snorted before releasing Hulk. The green guy came out with a loud roar before glancing around confused.

"Hi," Steve said, gently waving his hand. Hulk snorted before focusing on Bruce.

"Where fight?" the green guy grunted.

"No, no fight," Bruce exclaimed. Hulk frowned, confused even more. "We're having a movie night in the lab."

"NO LAB!" Hulk roared, rearing back away from the group and into the door. Arrow whimpered and backed away from Hulk.

"Whoa there big guy!" Steve called, holding his hands out defensively like he normally did. Bruce quickly stepped between Steve and Hulk as a just in case. Steve frowned at him for a moment before remembering he wasn't in his body. He was in Natasha's.

"Hulk, calm down. I promise we aren't going to do anything to you. All we are doing is going there to watch a movie," Bruce soothed, knowing that Hulk's reaction to the lab definitely had to do with him. It partly made the doctor feel guilt for horrifying the green guy but at the same time, Bruce felt right with the idea that it wasn't just him being bothered by a lab.

"No lab," Hulk whined, curling in on himself as if someone was reaching out to him even though no one was. Natasha shifted forward to grab Arrow as the pup tried to soothe his master in the green form.

"I'm sorry Hulk, but Tony is falling behind in his work and we don't want him missing out on this special night," Steve added. Hulk whimpered as if Steve was hurting the poor guy.

"No lab," he begged again. Steve looked to Bruce for help.

"Hulk, we promise that there will be no tests. No needles, no test tubes, nothing like a normal lab. This is Tony's lab with all his machinery," Bruce tried to describe. Hulk paused as he tried to shift through memories to picture the lab that Bruce was talking about. Thankfully, because Clint had been the one to help Steve build the movie viewing area in Tony's lab, Hulk was easily able to access the memories and what the lab looked like. Slowly, the green guy began to calm down. In fact, he calmed down so much that he looked to be slowly reverting back to Clint.

"Hulk, we want you to watch the movie with us. Don't let Clint take control right now," Steve quickly ordered. Hulk gave what seemed like a wince but it could have been a jump of shock at the words. Steve traded a confused look with Bruce. The big guy had never seemed frightened of him before. Could something else have made the green guy do that? Could it have been something like Clint heard Steve's order and made his heart rate spike, forcing Hulk to be in control longer? Bruce had never fought Hulk to keep the green guy out so no one knew what that would look like.

"Hulk no want movie night," Hulk whimpered and again tried to calm himself down into Clint. Again he jumped or winced and was back to normal.

"Don't you want friends?" Natasha suddenly called, drawing attention to herself and Arrow. "To be friends, we have to hang out. Sometimes in places we find slightly uncomfortable."

"Hulk no want to be in lab," Hulk mumbled to her. Natasha nodded and let go of Arrow as she knew that Hulk wouldn't hurt the pup. Right away, Arrow bounded over to one of Hulk's large hand. He sniffed it hesitantly, almost as if trying to smell Hulk's movements. Feeling like Hulk was okay and just upset, Arrow licked the green skin. Hulk smiled lightly. "Puppy."

"What if we say that it's actually Tony's workshop and not lab?" Natasha suggested. "Cause, that's technically what it is. We're all just used to calling it a lab."

"Workshop?" Hulk questioned, not used to that terminology.

"Uh... A place for Tony to fix his suit. There are desks, machine parts..." Steve explained. Hulk scrunched his face in confusion.

"Can we show you it? If you don't like it, we can have movie night elsewhere," Bruce compromised. Hulk frowned before nodding. He liked that idea much better than getting stuck in a lab. If they were lying to him then he could back away and fight them if need be. But if they weren't, then he would be able to calmly go into the 'workshop.' "Okay, let's go upstairs. And remember, if you don't like being there then tell us and we can leave."

* * *

 **4,566 words. There are no words to describe how sorry I am for not posting this entire month. Life totally got in the way. First we were house hunting every day and there was no time to type. Then Little Darius came into the world and I haven't had a minute to myself. And now we are looking at houses again already.**

 **Darius was born 5-31-16 at 11:22 am. He weighed in at 8 lbs 4 ounces. I was in the hospital with him for three days before being released and everything has been fine. No one was ill, or got ill, or anything like that. Clint has been ignoring Darius as much as possible. Including if an adult is holding Darius. Then it's as if they aren't in the room. Recently, Clint has gotten better and accepts kisses and give air kisses to Darius but if he see Darius coming near him and he has a chance to escape, he'll take the escape route.**

 **Yes, you read right. We are currently trying to find a new house. Our current house doesn't have enough room so we are looking for something bigger. Hopefully this hunt will be over soon as we have been looking for a while. And hopefully it won't interfere with me posting again. But, life does get in the way, a lot.**

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 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – Yeah. I loved that scene. I feel bad for making Tony suffer but I know that's what he'd do. Having Mjolnir take off when Tony touched it is actually an idea I had gotten from the Avengers Assemble episode where the group switched bodies thanks to MODOK. I had a bit of a hard time trying to describe the reason it took off so I'm glad everyone doesn't mind it. Arrow is so hard to remember about! I keep forgetting him and when I go to edit I suddenly realize he's been missing for like half the chapter and sometimes even the entire chapter. Then I have to go back and re-add him. When it comes to Star Wars I honestly love all of them. Even the newest one but yes... None will be up to par on the original three. But I have met many people who would absolutely refuse to watch part 1, 2, and 3 as they hated it that much or don't even want to give them a chance. I figured Tony would fit into that category. Glad you are looking forward to more. I did have a wonderful Mother's day, even though it has now been so long since then. And a mother to the four legged variety is still a mother. Heck, sometimes I think my 20 lbs cat is more work than Darius.

 _Shazia Malik_ \- Thankfully, Odin has Hiemdall to tell him that Thor is indeed alive. Mjolnir is just going off its spell that Odin had casted. When Tony touched it, Mjolnir could sense it was Thor's form but his soul was not the same. Sadly no visit from Asgard. Thor is supposed to be able to handle these situations himself, so Odin won't send help. Just like with the Chitauri. Yes, Tony does need to chill. Hopefully this chapter is a little easier for everyone to handle with him. Thank you for the comment and I'm glad you like it. Hope it stays that way, lol.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ \- It's fine that you haven't been around to read and review. Heck, I apparently haven't been around to edit and post so we're kind of even now. lol. Trust me on the packing and unpacking of boxes I know how long it takes. My mother still hasn't unpacked from her move three years ago. Reminds me of the movie _The Incredibles_ when Mrs. Incredible calls Mr. Incredible to say they officially were unpacked and he was like 'I thought we did that months ago'. LOL... As for the gang and their treatments of each other's bodies... I feel bad but it seems more realistic that they wouldn't change to match their new body. And the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, I had so much fun writing that bit. I love having them fail so badly. Influenced by the body...? Yeah, I can see that. Wow... I think you are the first to say that you are glad she had to leave. To be honest, I was having a hard time making her fit, hence why I got rid of her. As for solving, still got many chapters to go (or so I hope considering I'm still not done).


	11. Chapter 11

The journey up to the lab/workshop was tense. Bruce (as Steve) was the only one allowed in the elevator with Hulk (technically Clint). Steve (as Natasha) and Natasha (as Tony) walked the flight of stairs with Arrow. The pup had been really upset when he wasn't able to help keep his master calm but understood that it was for his own protection. So, he raced ahead of everyone else so that he could be waiting by the elevator doors when his master arrived. Sadly the pup forgot about the door that separates the hallways from the stairwell and it wasn't a swing door. So, he impatiently waited there for the slower humans to arrive.

"How are you feeling Hulk?" Bruce asked a few floors away from the green guy's playroom. Hulk glanced over at the doctor before shrugging. He had never been in this experience before. In fact, Hulk's only experience with emotions tended to be confusion, fear and anger. Nothing like how he was feeling right now. Bruce sighed and gently laid a hand on the green guy's arm. Hulk didn't flinch but looked down toward the doctor again. "Hey, it's okay. It's perfectly normal to be nervous."

"Nervous?" Hulk questioned sounding so much like an innocent little child. Bruce winced, having forgotten about Hulk's childlike naivety. He had simply assumed that Hulk wasn't used to feeling different emotions. It might just be that Hulk almost didn't understand them. Like a young child learning about different emotions as they grew and didn't know what they meant or sometimes even how to react. Bruce may have to tell everyone about this. Treating Hulk like a child may be what they need to do while they are teaching him how to be a normal person.

"Nervous is that feeling you get when you feel almost flushed. Your pulse is racing and you want to move but can't for some reason," Bruce tried to describe. Hulk grunted still not understanding many of the terms that the doctor used. Bruce sighed. This was going to be harder than he thought. As Bruce thought about an easier way to describe it, Hulk went searching through Clint's mind.

"Maybe nervous," Hulk admitted after a bit. Bruce nodded, pleased that Hulk might actually be learning. What he didn't know was that Hulk had gone through Clint's memories to figure out what Bruce was talking about. Thankfully for Hulk, Clint didn't try to block him like Bruce normally used to. Clint's mind was literally an open book, Hulk could know about the archer's entire life but was trying to be respectful by not looking through it all.

"It's okay. As I said, perfectly normal," Bruce explained as the doors opened on the correct floor. Arrow was waiting with Natasha and Steve a bit further away. Excited to be reunited with his master, Arrow barked at Hulk who flinched in surprise. Unsure what Hulk would do, Natasha lunged forward to grab Arrow's collar and pulled the pup back. At Arrow's confused whimper, Hulk growled at the spy.

"Let it go," he snarled angrily. The sharp yap had startled him but there was enough memories of Clint getting startled as well and no one reaching to pull Arrow away. Hulk wanted to be treated normal, like a close friend. This isn't normal.

"Hulk," Bruce warned, moving to block the big guy in the elevator. Natasha let go of Arrow's collar but the pup was smart enough to realize this situation wasn't good. He stayed back and gave everyone a wondering gaze. Thankfully, once Natasha let go of Arrow, Hulk relaxed.

"Good puppy," Hulk soothed before gently pushing a hand toward the pup. Slowly, Arrow moved closer and closer until he was less than an inch away. Hulk closed the distance and began to gently pet the pup's head. Everyone relaxed. Looking down at the pup, Hulk's face was blocked from the others so they didn't notice a small smile start to appear.

"Okay, well the 'workshop' is just ahead," Steve prompted, trying to keep things as easy going as possible. At that exact moment, Tony (as Thor) stepped out of the lab. He looked agitated.

"Well, are you guys coming or hanging out here all night?" the genius scoffed. Hulk looked up and glared. Right then, Hulk was reminded of the scientists that had done bunch of tests on Bruce before. Many of them had said similar statements in an effort to get to their studies faster.

"Tony," Steve warned, turning to glare at the billionaire. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, I got work to do," the genius stated before going back inside. Thor (as Clint) replaced him. Bruce shook his head before encouraging Hulk to emerge from the elevator, something neither man had done this entire time. Unconsciously, Hulk followed even as he still pet Arrow, just like Clint would have done when he was feeling nervous and unsure what to do. Natasha frowned, having begun to pick up signs earlier of Hulk acting more like Clint than Bruce. She wondered if the shared mind had something to do with it.

"Hulk no like lab," Hulk whined as soon as he was fully into the hallway. He even stopped petting Arrow who whined and butted his head against Hulk's hand. And again, just like Clint, Hulk began to pet the pup.

"I know. But I promise, all we'll do is watch a movie," Bruce swore once again. Hulk nodded and moved closer to the doorway that Thor still blocked. Once in front of the door, Hulk froze. Thor moved aside to allow everyone in but no one moved to follow him.

"Hulk?" Steve questioned.

"Where sit?" Hulk replied, turning back to the others. His green eyes looked worried but they could all tell that he was trying to be brave so that they could hang out as friends.

"Over by the couches, this way," Natasha said even as she moved to slip by and enter into the lab. She carefully picked her way around lab, avoiding tables with valuables and glass. It was also the largest path that Steve and Clint had created earlier that day. Hulk slowly and extra carefully followed after her. The others picked their way behind him. In a matter of moments, everyone was sitting down. Bruce, who was closest to the TV, grabbed a large collection of movies that they had all chosen. Not surprisingly, most of the movies were kid's movies or Disney movies. Amazingly enough, no one had seen them really.

"Dragon," Hulk demanded as soon as Bruce turned over the first movie to get votes. A quick glance at the others to see if they were fine with this choice and then Bruce turned back and placed the movie in. Hulk smiled, unknowing that no one argued his choice because they were slightly frightened of what he'd do if they argued. As the movie started, Bruce sat back down. The seating went as followed; Natasha and Steve on the couch closest to lab door and Thor in the next seat on the other couch. Bruce took the seat next to Thor but leaned forward so that Hulk could see him out of the corner of his eye. Hulk chose to sit on the floor with Arrow lying beside him. Tony stayed at his table, furthest from Hulk and closest to the door but with an eye line on the movie.

" _This is Berk. It's twelve days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. My village. In a word? Sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests. You see, most places have mice or mosquitoes... We have... Dragons!_ "

Hulk suddenly giggled, making everyone jump in surprise. It was such a new noise to them that they had no idea what was happening. Bruce was the first to realize that the sound had come from Hulk and pointed to the green guy in a sort of question as he looked over everyone. As confused as the doc was, the others were just as stunned that the noise came from Hulk. But they shrugged it off and continued to watch the movie.

Thankfully Hulk was calm and sedated throughout the whole movie. After maybe ten minutes of nothing bad happening, the others (except Tony) even began to relax and enjoy the show. So by the time the movie ended and Hulk whined at the credits, only Tony was tense enough to jump at the sound. But they certainly jumped at his voice.

"What? What happened?" Tony cried, looking like he was ready for a fight of some kind.

"Calm down, the movie ended," Steve stressed, looking over Hulk to see how the green guy would react. Hulk didn't even seemed bothered by Tony's outburst.

"Oh... Okay," Tony answered, sounding almost disappointed that nothing bad had happened. Steve and Bruce both gave the genius a criticizing look that told him to watch his behavior. But of course, Tony wasn't paying attention to them so he missed their looks. He had rather quickly gone back to work in an effort to calm his now racing heart. Adreniline was pulsing through his veins and it made his new body feel electrically charged. Under his breath, Tony muttered: "Right, thunder god."

"Okay, what should we watch next?" Bruce asked, getting up to grab the collection again. It ended up being a rather pointless question.

"More dragons!" Hulk demanded. Bruce paused. He hadn't seen a lot of these movies and so he didn't know what had dragons in it. And while the others hadn't seen many of the movies either, they had gotten the large collection so they knew what was in the pile.

"I think I put the sequel in there," Natasha suggested. Bruce smiled before digging through.

"Yup, got it," Bruce called, pulling it out of the stack and preparing to exchange movies. It took less than a minute before he returned to his seat and the movie began to play. "I like how JARVIS can skip the menu screen."

"Yeah, always makes watching movies easy," Natasha commented.

"Menu screen?" Thor questioned as the opening started. Hulk hissed something that sounded like him trying to shush them all. Steve smiled as Natasha snorted. Thor chuckled and Bruce just shook his head. Tony frowned as he tried to focus on his work but the movie was drawing his attention away. He had seen the first one but he hadn't gotten time to see the second one. By about halfway through, Tony had stopped working entirely and was focused on the movie but he still hadn't moved from his workspace.

The rest of the night pretty much followed the same routine. For the beginning ten minutes of each movie, everyone was nervous about what Hulk would do. But then they'd all calm down. Even Tony after the second movie. It was nearing five or six movies later that everyone got the surprise of their lives. The movie in now was _Brave_ and everyone had begun to ignore Hulk's reactions to violence and even pretty much ignored Hulk. So about halfway through the movie, when Merida had to face the reality of watching her mother lose herself to become more bear-like, a new voice called out.

"What the heck are we watching?" Natasha was the first to look at where Hulk had been. In the green guy's place was a very tired looking Bruce.

"Clint? What happened to Hulk?" she wondered, sitting up. Now everyone was looking at the archer. He slowly looked back at them and Bruce was quick to notice that the green tinge that had become a constant since he accepted Hulk was currently missing.

"I don't know... I think... Well, I think he fell asleep," Clint stated sounding very unsure of himself. He looked to Bruce for help. The doctor couldn't help but notice that Clint's eyes didn't show a trace of green. Hulk was almost missing from Clint's mind.

"I don't think he's ever slept with me," Bruce admitted, slightly jealous of this new predicament. "But then again, I've never let him out for this long. Especially in a calm environment."

"So, I guess this means that movie night was a success?" Steve questioned. Bruce nodded.

"More than a success. Hulk doesn't like labs and yet he apparently grew comfortable enough to fall asleep in one," Natasha pointed out. The others nodded and again Bruce felt a surge of jealously. Maybe he should trust Hulk more. Apparently that approach worked much better than trying to block the big guy or even trying effortlessly to get rid of him.

"Well that's good," Bruce commented just before there was a loud crash on the other side of the room. Everyone jumped to their feet, looking to see what had caused the noise. Clint was actually the first one to notice Tony was missing. His precursory looks during _Brave_ had him note where everyone was so it was easy to see that only the billionaire was now missing from his view.

"Tony!" the archer cried, rushing toward where he last knew the genius had been. The lab table was slightly askew as if Tony had tried to catch himself before falling. Thankfully nothing on the table was dangerous to Tony as the genius was unconscious on the floor behind the lab table. Bruce, who had been right behind the archer, rushed to the billionaire's side. The others stopped on the other side of the table to give Bruce and Clint room to check on the genius.

"Tony, Tony can you wake up for me?" Bruce sharply inquired, gently moving Tony to the side to make sure the genius hadn't hit his head on anything. As he felt around, Bruce found no injury, not that Thor's body usually did but best to check. Finding no visible reason for Tony to pass out, Bruce gently patted Tony's face. "Tony, wake up for me."

"JARVIS, when was the last time Tony ate?" Natasha called, used to Tony's almost personal mission to not take care of himself. A personal matter that was made worse now that Tony wasn't just making his own body suffer. Not that one could easily tell is Thor's body was suffering. But considering Thor's body wasn't used to the Tony Stark lifestyle and was more suited for battles, one could almost see this happening.

"Since the pop tarts," JARVIS calmly replied. Natasha, who hadn't been there for that scene, frowning in confusion. Bruce, who had been there, looked up, shocked.

"That was days ago," the doctor cried, more horrified that Tony hadn't taken his advice to continue eating at a normal schedule.

"And before the pop tarts?" Natasha wondered, already knowing the answer was going to be a long time. But apparently Bruce didn't understand Tony as well as she had. Either that, or this team was really bad at being a team.

"Nearing 36 hours," JARVIS retorted. Natasha cussed before looking down at herself. No wonder she felt like she had gained a few pounds since this whole mess started. Tony deprives himself of so much food that even eating right is almost too much. Clint glanced over at the spy with a curious look before realizing she might be feeling guilty. He knew that she had been eating regular meals and had made a brief statement to him about feeling bloated. Tony was gonna kill her when he finds out that she made him gain weight. That was unless Thor didn't hurt Tony for depriving his body of essential needs like food and rest.

"Alright, let's move him down to his room. JARVIS I want a constant monitor on his life signs. Any issues let me know. Also, if he shows signs of waking, let me know. We need his favorite food either prepared or delivered. Actually, wait, Thor's favorite food," Bruce listed to the AI even as he and Clint worked on lifting the unconscious genius/thunderer's body from the floor. Steve moved in as if he wished to help but when his hands got in front of him, he noticed that they were Natasha's. Natasha's body didn't have the strength to help like his body. Bruce and Clint were on their own.

"Understood, Dr. Banner," JARVIS answered as if he wouldn't have been doing that any ways. Bruce nodded, used to the AI actually complying with his wants and needs sometimes long before he even said anything. The group quickly dissolved as Bruce and Clint worked to bring Tony up to his room. Natasha turned back around to clean up the rather limited mess from the 'movie night'. Thor looked back and forth from the door to Natasha before deciding to turn back and help the assassin. Maybe the duo could move the couches back to where they needed to be. Steve sighed and slowly followed out the door but didn't make it to the elevator before the doors closed.

"Fun movie night..." Steve hissed to himself.

* * *

Tony was forced to rest the entire night. When he did wake, Bruce had a rather impressive meal waiting. Bruce, Clint and Thor supervised Tony as he ate the entire thing. It was actually Thor that suggested Tony rest more and considering Tony was in the thunderer's body, the genius decided it was best to listen for once. Natasha was able to sneak away with Clint soon after and they headed off to a training room for an hour. There they met with Steve but he was still there when they left.

Steve spent just about the entire time from Tony resting till the next morning, training. Or rather, beating the crap out of a heavy punching bag. Not a one was destroyed in the entire time. The next morning, Clint was the first person to arrive.

"Still here?" the archer questioned. Steve glanced back before nodding and then going back to beating the crap out of the bag. Clint looked around, missing the devastation of Steve's angry rants on the heavy bags. "Not as fun if they don't explode in one punch, is it?"

Steve huffed and laughed and stopped punching to take a breath for a second. "I guess not."

"Want to try for a real person?" Clint suggested even as Natasha snuck into the room. The duo were working hard on making Tony's and Bruce's body commit different fighting styles to muscle memory. Might as well make some use out of this incident. Steve sighed and glanced forlornly at the bag he had tried so hard to demolish all night.

"I..."

"I swear to god if your next words are that you don't want to hurt me, you have no excuse right now. You're in Nat's body," Clint pointed out. Steve turned back to Clint in surprise. "Bruce can hold his own."

"What about Hulk? You don't think it will bother him?" Steve wondered, worried about doing anything wrong.

"Hulk will be fine. He's gotten used to me training with Natasha in Tony's body lately," Clint mentioned, blowing away Steve's last excuse. Natasha smiled, glad that Steve could actually train and bond with someone. She turned and left, intent on seeking Tony in his room to find out what he does to his body so she doesn't ruin it any longer (that is if he was awake).

"Alright," Steve finally agreed, walking away from his area to move toward the mats that Clint and Natasha are normally found fighting on. Clint smirked and giddily jumped after him. "I don't know any real fighting techniques."

"Nat's body does. Just kind-of go with the flow," Clint stated, dropping into an odd fighting stance that Steve's never seen before. At the soldier's confused expression, Clint chuckled. "Bruce learned TaiChi. I've been using most of those moves when I train with Natasha. We figured it was best to use styles that Tony and Bruce already knew and refine them into more fighting techniques."

"So what, I just use Natasha's fighting style when I don't even know what it is?" Steve mumbled, unsure of what he was supposed to do and even if he was going to be learning anything like this. Clint chuckled.

"If you seriously think I know what I'm doing right now you are wrong. Nat and I just know the idea of muscle memory. I have no idea if Nat's body will react if I throw a punch at you. What I do know is that by using Bruce's fighting skills that he already knows, it's easier for me to fight that way then trying to fight how I normally do in my body," Clint admitted. Steve snorted.

"Well, I at least know that Natasha can punch and dodge. I can do that much," Steve replied. Clint laughed and nodded before dropping back into his starting stance. Steve dropped into a familiar boxing stance that Clint already knew of at least five ways to take down with one hit from his starting stance. The archer smirked but decided to let Steve start. And start he did, Steve tried to let out a left jab to Clint's open head. Clint quickly brought his hands up to diffuse Steve's hit. Their wrists locked even as Clint shifted his weight to his right foot and kicked out with his left. Steve grunted as the kick collided with his stomach. His wrist was pulled free as he dropped back.

"Watch that opening move. It leaves much of your body unprotected," Clint warned even as he dropped into a crouch and readied himself to launch at the Captain. Steve rubbed his aching stomach with a snort before shifting his feet to a more protective stance, one that Clint recognized as a move Natasha normally used. Feeling better about this idea, Clint attacked.

Five minutes later, Clint was starting to get slightly out of breath and had a nice sheen of sweat on his body. Steve on the other hand looked as if the archer was trying to kill him. The solider was breathing rather heavily, his was having a hard time keeping his arms up to defend and his legs were shaking. Clint backed off, looking the man over.

"You okay Cap?" the archer wondered. Behind them the door to the gym opened to reveal Bruce. The doctor had gotten a warning from JARVIS that Clint was training with Steve and Steve's health was declining as they continued.

"Yeah," Steve huffed, trying hard to work through whatever was going on. Clint dropped off the mat even more, showing that he was stopping their bought. Steve frowned. "Come on, I can keep going."

"Uh, I'm not so sure about that," Clint mumbled, concern lacing his voice. Steve snorted and waved a hand at the archer, dismissing his worry.

"I'm good, let's go again," Steve encouraged. Clint frowned before he felt someone watching him. He glanced back at Bruce and nodded at the worried gaze on the doctor's face. Bruce moved closer but didn't speak. "Clint?"

"Did you rest at all last night?" Clint asked, turning back to look at Steve. The solider frowned, wondering what that had to do with anything. He went to open his mouth but that's when his extreme workout finally hit his body. Natasha's body couldn't handle the stress of trying to kill a heavy bag all night and then a workout with Clint after an entire day of more training and other stressors. Never mind that Steve hadn't been taking a full night's rest. He normally went to bed about midnight or later and woke as early as 4. Natasha needed more rest than that. Steve collapsed.

"STEVE!" Bruce and Clint cried together even as they rushed to his side. Bruce checked the man's pulse even as Clint began gently smacking Steve's face in an effort to wake him. After finding Steve's pulse was going strong, maybe a little too fast, Bruce realized what happened and snorted.

"What?" Clint asked, almost offended that Bruce would laugh at this. Bruce glanced at the archer.

"He fainted," the doctor scientifically stated. Clint blinked in confusion a few times.

"He what?" Clint muttered. Bruce laughed.

"He fainted. He just needs rest and some fluids then he'll be fine," Bruce added. Clint looked down at Steve before back up at Bruce.

"Do none of us know how to care for our bodies?" Clint growled. Bruce laughed.

"Apparently not," Bruce agreed. Clint snorted before leaning down and picking Steve's unconscious form up. Bruce protested for a second with a shake of his head but didn't stop Clint from lifting Steve off the floor and heading out of the training room. "Should I make JARVIS track us and remind us when we should eat, rest, drink and generally take care of ourselves?"

"Well... We're all okay in our own bodies... Maybe he should tell us what we should be doing if we were the person we are right now, ya know?" Clint suggested. Bruce frowned as he tried to figure out what Clint was stating.

"If you wish for me to keep track of everyone's lifestyle than you Agent Barton should be meditating in Dr. Banner's room and Dr. Banner should stay in the gym and train," JARVIS intoned having been keeping track of the conversation. "Agent Romanoff should be working in the lab, Sir should be watching TV, Captain Rogers should be cleaning Agent Romanoff's guns and Mr. Odinson should be in the archery range. Shall I inform the others?"

"No. Thank you JARVIS," Bruce chuckled. Clint grunted in humor.

"Are we seriously that predictable?" Clint wondered.

"I was more surprised at the fact that no one was in the same room as someone else. I thought at least some of us hung out outside of our team meetings, trainings and meals," Bruce mentioned. Clint chuckled.

"Yeah. I wish," Clint agreed. "Nat and I have been hanging out less and less lately. Actually, I think she's been spending more time with Pepper. Though, Tony has been rather insistent on hanging."

"That might have to do with you being his adopted son," Bruce laughed. Clint chuckled again and nodded.

"Yeah. I guess," Clint said as they finally arrived at Steve's room.

"Not much we can do about it," Bruce stated.

"Maybe we should have an informal meeting and discuss what we should be doing," Clint muttered as he dropped Steve onto his bed. He then reached around for Steve's drawing notebook and started to look for an open page.

"Yeah that hasn't been working," Bruce snorted. Clint nodded even as he started to write out a note to Steve that when he wakes he should have some water. He didn't get far before an alarm went off. Steve jerked into awareness.

"What?" he blearily called, confused.

"Isn't that the battle call alarm?" Clint wondered. Bruce looked to the archer.

"I thought the Fantastic Four was covering for us?"

* * *

 **4523 words. Wish to god that this chapter to worth the long wait you all had to endure... There is no apology, I'm just that bad right now. And even worse, I can't promise that I'll be any faster...**

 **So, Little Clint is saying a lot more words now. Almost fully speaking in sentences. He even repeats things after hearing the word only once so... Sadly he knows almost every swear. Not fully my husband and my fault... Little Clint picks it up from strangers, other family members, YouTube, TV and so much more. And of course, he says them at such random times that it strikes my husband and myself highly funny and we laugh... We try to hold it back but... Sometimes we just can't. So... We finally learned what's going on with Clint's mind. He has a genetic learning disability that makes him borderline Autistic. We plan on doing some genetic testing to find out what is going on but we may never find out. But at least we now have a medical statement to tell the school district.**

 **Darius has been doing well. Except we found out he has acid reflux which makes it difficult to feed him and burp him without him throwing up and the gas sometimes builds up till he just won't stop screaming. Thankfully he is just recently on medication for it and doing much better. But this reflux has now made it that Darius refuses to sleep without being in my husband or my arms, including at night so we've taken to sleeping on our couch. Also, Clint's genetic learning disability has the possibility for seizures in his future but as it's genetic, Darius may have the same issue. So far, he seems to be on par or ahead of the learning curve for his age but we've noticed signs of potential seizure activity. So this week we are going to go check that out and pray that we are wrong and that it's just nothing.**

 **In other news, we bought a new house. The house is in the district of Clint's old daycare and we had to switch him back after having just brought him to a new daycare... Thankfully Clint doesn't seemed phased by any of this moving at all. In fact, he's been having fun roaming around the new house even though there is nothing in it. Now, my time is going to be spent packing up and getting ready to move everything in the new house as we already closed on it.**

 **Well, enough about my life... Time for some review responses:**

 **Favorite** : SuperBookNerd1276, Freedom to Rarity, skeeter88

 **Follower:** TJ Carlson, SuperBookNerd1276, I-am-a-Ice-cream-lover, Myshi corp, lulu406, xarinam, Freedom to Rarity, skeeter88

 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – Thank you for the congrats and the wishing of luck. I'm glad you thought the chapter was awesome. Yeah, I had to cringe a bit when I wrote that but I need some conflict for a better story and right now, Tony and Clint are just screaming to fight. And the more they fight, the more they learn about each other and the closer they'll be in the end. Yeah, Hulk and labs are not good together. But Hulk is young and much like my Little Clint, one bad experience turns off the whole area. Yeah... A month at that point and now what, like two months... I'm so bad... Sry... I hope everyone else can be like you and not realize that amount of time has passed. But I realize it every week that I don't post. It's hard to find time now... But I think I've found a way around everything. Course, I don't want to make promises as you read above, I'm working on packing and moving now.

 _Freedom to Rarity_ \- Thank you for loving my story and I'm sorry that Tony annoys you. I'll work on some Steve wump. Can't promise as much of this story is already complete but the sequel to this story is only in planning phase and I'm certain I can make a lot of CapWump. Yes, Steve does have his own home but I'm working on almost an AU version. Basically, I have it that after the events of Avengers, Tony invited everyone to stay in his place and Steve's house was just a S.H.I.E.L.D safe house so it's being used for someone else. I haven't mentioned it cause on my first profile (Barton-Lover) and my first story (After Loki) I explained that. And technically these stories are all supposed to be a long extending series but I've accidentally dropped details or changed details as I went on until finally I decided that I was just going to say _After Training, Everything Goes Wrong_ is my starting point.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ \- I'm glad you are following with great interest and I love hearing that I'm doing well with writing each character. I keep feeling like I'm either lacking or someone wouldn't believe that the character would act a particular way... But, I just kind of sit at the keyboard and my fingers fly over the keys, sometimes without thought. It's almost like I'm the vessel to this story, lol. Thank you for your continuing following and reviewing and take care as well. Hope everything is well with you.

 _fishstick1999_ \- Yup new chapter. Sorry that this one was so late as well... Can't promise another new chapter anytime soon either. And thank you for the wishes on finding a house. As you read above, we did find one. Now we are in the process of moving.


	12. Chapter 12

Everyone was quick to gather in the meeting room. At first no one could get a word in edgewise as everyone was talking over each other. It took a few minutes before Steve (as Natasha) realized that he was having a hard time gaining control. Bruce (as Steve) was doing his normal thing by setting himself up in a corner and watching everyone. He was trying to follow all the conversations and added his few cents here and there but no one seemed to hear. Clint (as Bruce) and Natasha (as Tony) were off to the side discussing what was going on while also trying to keep Hulk from coming out at Clint's anxiety over the situation. Arrow sat between the duo, barking a warning at them but neither one paid the pup any attention. Tony (as Thor) was going at Steve and JARVIS, trying to get answers but JARVIS wasn't answering (as he couldn't hear Tony over the many voices). Thor (as Clint) was loudly declaring that this alarm meant war with the AI system unless there was to be a valiant battle to be had.

"ENOUGH!" Bruce finally shouted in his best mimic of Steve's Captain-voice. The room silenced in part surprise, part wonderment at the doctor's imitation. "If we are going to figure out what is going on, we need to be silent. One person at a time. And the first person is going to be JARVIS."

"JARVIS? Shouldn't it be like Steve or something?" Tony grumbled. Bruce shook his head.

"JARVIS is the one who set of the alarm. He has the most information out of all of us," Bruce pointed out. It made sense. JARVIS would have the answer they need and not Steve. But they had all gotten used to whenever the alarm went off, they'd gather and Steve would ask JARVIS what was going on.

"Thank you, Dr. Banner," JARVIS intoned. "I have received a distress call from a Mr. Fantastic."

"WHAT?" Tony shouted.

"When?" Natasha demanded.

"Does S.H.I.E.L.D know?" Clint asked.

"What did he say?" Steve ordered.

"STOP!" Bruce yelled, silencing everyone from asking more information from JARVIS before the AI could describe. "JARVIS, please continue."

"I received this distress a couple of days ago but Director Fury ordered me not to inform any of you," JARVIS replied. Again there was a small out roar of voices that was silenced by Bruce slamming his hand on the table. When it worked, Bruce couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on his face. He was beginning to enjoy this new leadership role. "The reason for the alarm is Director Fury wishes for the Avengers to deal with a small battle. Apparently the Serpent Society is using the missing heroes as a time to rob various banks."

"So, we have to deal with the Serpent Society?" Tony wondered. He then laughed. "That will be simple!"

"Tony, you won't have your armor," Natasha pointed out even as she moved a silver bracelet around on her wrist. Tony's eyes narrowed. He had no idea that the spy had gone into his lab and stole the control bracelets for the Iron Man suit Mach 7. "Nor will you have Thor's hammer or the ability to fly or even call lightning."

"I can punch," Tony whimpered as if that made up for everything he'd be missing in the fight.

"We won't have our archer," Natasha mentioned, pointing to Clint. "Hulk barely listens to anyone in the heat of battle and Steve doesn't know the lullaby and I doubt I can get close."

"I can make Hulk understand he needs to stop," Clint argued, actually unsure if he could or couldn't. Natasha stared at him as if daring the archer to fight her further on the issue. Her look even made Arrow whimper in fear.

"Bruce, do you know how to throw Cap's shield and have it come back to you?" Bruce shook his head. He hadn't trained with the shield yet. As much as he had trained a little with the others to try and keep up Steve's form, he never thought to practice with the shield. "Now Steve, I know you can shoot a gun but can you fight like me?"

"I worked a little with Clint on that," Steve softly admitted. Natasha looked to Clint who shrugged. He hadn't seen it as a bad thing but at her look, he wondered if he had made a wrong decision. She sighed. Steve wasn't that good but he was close enough to pass it off as Natasha having a bad day. The spy then turned to Thor.

"Have you practiced archery recently?"

"I have not but I do not fear that shall hinder me in this battle," Thor mentioned, feeling overconfident in his own skills and Clint's muscle memory.

"I am sorry to say this but Director Fury was rather insistent that the Avengers do this battle no matter how prepared any of you are," JARVIS added. Natasha shook her head, seeing this as the preemptive 'fuck show' it was bound to be.

"Fine, let's do this."

* * *

Needless to say, the Avengers were successful in their mission... But were they able to cover the change well? Not so much. While Thor had been good in the range, in the heat of battle, the thunderer couldn't hit his targets as often as Clint. Hell, it seemed like Clint was back to his childhood and was just learning how to shoot. Tony kept calling for help from JARVIS even though he had no suit on. Natasha kept crashing into buildings when she attempted to override what JARVIS was doing to stabilize the suit. Bruce lost Cap's shield within the first few minutes of the fight. Steve ran out of ammo as he wasn't used to carrying multiple clips as he always had his muscle as back-up. Hulk was the only one who fought normally but once the battle was done, the green guy up and left out of pure frustration with everyone.

Now back on the Helicarrier, the group waited for Fury to come debrief them on the fight. Natasha sat herself far from the rest of the group, her arms crossed her chest (no matter how painful it felt), giving everyone an 'I told you so' look. Steve sat in his normal seat looking sullen and guilty as if it was his fault no one was ready to fight in their current bodies. Tony had Thor's cell phone out, fiddling around with schematics and data to try and see if he could build a suit of armor that fit everyone or if he could add a JARVIS interface to everyone's outfit. Thor stood off to the side, looking through Clint's quiver. While he had used it in battle, he hadn't been able to figure out how to change the arrow heads and no matter how much Natasha tried to describe how to, he still didn't get it. Bruce, like Steve, also sat in his normal seat. He had taken quick glances over everyone to see how they were doing before taking out his own cell phone and typing commands to JARVIS in an effort to find Hulk/Clint.

"So... Do any of you fuckers know what happened to Agent Barton?" Fury demanded the second he walked into the room. No one spoke. They had been honestly surprised when Hulk left after the battle. Most of them had figured that the big guy would realize who they all were and would have stayed. "No? That's just great. For all we know, he's halfway to Africa... AGAIN!"

"Actually Hulk liked Utah more," Bruce softly pointed out as if Fury cared. Fury leveled his one angry eye on the doctor. Bruce looked away in a similar dejected look that Steve usually took during these meetings. He almost wished he hadn't said anything.

"I do have to applaud you," Fury commented sounding almost pleased. A few of them (Steve, Tony and Thor) perked up, thinking they did some good. "You almost caused enough property damage to rival the Manhattan attack."

"Guess that's coming out of our paychecks?" Tony joked even though his tone sounded defeated. The genius almost sounded honestly upset by the whole issue. Fury gave off a sarcastic bark of laughter. There was no way he'd believe that Tony didn't enjoy the amount of damage caused. Normally, Tony always joked about it.

"You idiots had weeks to prepare. WEEKS!" Fury shouted. "Why the fuck can't you all fight!?"

"Cause, we've been busy with other things," came Clint's voice suddenly before the door to the meeting room opened and he walked in. The archer looked utterly exhausted. Almost like he hadn't slept in a few weeks. In his hand was a half eaten protein bar that had been stolen from Bruce's room. Fury narrowed his gaze on the archer.

"Where the fuck did you go?" Fury ordered. Clint shrugged.

"I woke up in Bruce's room at the tower," Clint mentioned. Fury raised an eyebrow. "I guess Hulk calmly walked from the battle, back to the tower and waited for the others to come back. I followed what I thought was his path. Nothing destroyed but a couple of city mailboxes and a few newspaper stands were knocked over."

"Oh. Well that's fucking great. Now I have to deal with the press talking about Hulk wandering around New York without another Avenger present," Fury growled, sounding similar to whining but not really coming close enough.

"From what I can tell, he didn't get into trouble," Clint softly stated, knowing that he and Hulk were running on very, very thin ice at this moment. Fury could decide that Hulk leaving the battle and wandering around New York as the last straw and lock them up. Something Bruce had always feared and why the rest of the team usually kept a close eye on the big guy.

"Considering that there was no reports of Hulk doing anything disastrous, I would say that maybe this might give us good PR," Bruce suggested. Fury shook his head even as his mind pictured the horrible headlines of the days to come. Steve nodded his head having thought the same thing but wasn't as willing to share it now considering if Fury decided to fight it out, he might lose in Natasha's body.

"I'm not so sure. I've dealt with the press for years. Anything that could be perceived as good, always gets some sort of bad spin. Just the way it works," Tony explained with a shrug. He of course didn't seem the least bit concerned and had pulled out the specially made cell phone for Thor's strength again. The thunderer normally never used it as he tended to lose the small device but of course, Tony wasn't Thor. And thankfully Steve had tested the device and it had also once been found under Mjolnir so Tony knew it would last his new destructive hands. He was again going over his earlier work and thought process to make sure it made sense. "Can we just get this debrief over? I want to get back to the tower and check on Pepper."

"Oh. Yeah, cause it's not like you're the only one with a fucking life, Stark," Fury snapped. Then he heaved a great sigh before grabbing a remote that had been sitting on the table. He turned it to aim behind him before pressing a button. The wall turned into a TV screen and began to show various camera angles on the battle that the group had just faced. "Want to explain what the fuck happened? Why the Avengers look worse than the first time you asshats teamed up?"

"We aren't ourselves," Tony flippantly answered even as he fiddled more on the phone. Fury barked out a sarcastic laugh.

"You 'aren't your selves'. Funny Stark. Should we add professional comedian to your repertoire?" Fury asked. Tony shrugged, unconcerned about the whole deal. Fury slammed his hands on the table in an effort to get Tony's attention. It normally worked well but considering Tony was now in Thor's body, Fury's physical intimidation wasn't going to have the same effect. He didn't even glance Fury's way which only ticked off the Director even more.

"Tony," Bruce and Steve warned at the same time. Fury rolled his eyes, sick of dealing with the group anyways. Tony's eyes flashed in Bruce's direction but he still didn't make any effort into looking like he cared anymore.

"I want all your reports by sundown. Explain what could have been done to make this battle better and what will be done to fix it before the next one. Do I make myself clear?" Fury snapped. Bruce, Steve, Natasha and Thor nodded.

"Uh... I have no memory of the battle... So, what should I do?" Clint asked, genuinely curious and not trying to back out of a report like he always used to. Fury turned to the wall before ripping something out of a port and tossing it back at the unstable archer. Clint looked at it to see that it was a flash drive. Basically the video of the whole battle. Clint sighed, not looking forward to writing this report, at all.

"I want that back with your report," Fury insisted before moving to leave the room. He wasn't even going to bother with making Tony do the report. Everyone knew that Tony only did one if he was highly bored or had some sort of information to add that Fury didn't know. Right now, Tony had none of that waiting for him. "All of you, get the fuck out of my sight."

Fury was actually the first to leave the room. Tony was the next to attempt it but Steve cleared his throat. Unsure what to do, Tony paused and looked to the captain.

"Maybe when we get back to the tower, we should look over the footage together so we can get each other's insight on our attempts to be... Well, each other?" Steve wondered. Tony scoffed before turning his phone to the captain. It already had an article pulled up from a Christine Everheart. _Avengers Confusion in Battle_ was the headline.

"This reporter already figured out that something is messed up. She got pretty much on the head about us. Yeah, she may have made other theories as well but her number one pick is that somehow we switched bodies. And like us when it first happened, she can't figure out how it happened," Tony hissed. "News is out. And I for one, ain't gonna keep trying to cover this shit up."

* * *

With the news that the Avengers weren't themselves out in the public, it wasn't long before another group wanted to test the superhero team. This time it was the Wrecking Crew. Considering the uneven sides one would think that the Avengers would win easily and yes, normally they did. Normally Thor, Hulk and Steve could take down the Wrecking Crew without anyone else but considering Thor was now Clint and Steve was now Natasha it was actually Bruce, Tony and Clint/Hulk that had to do the most work. Thor was slightly more helpful in the battle by using up basically Clint's entire stockpile of net arrows. It helped by keeping at least one or two members of the Wrecking Crew down while the others took care of the rest.

Hulk took over Thor's normal fight by battling Wrecker. Wrecker's magic crowbar did confuse the big guy a few times but having fought Thor enough, Hulk understood enough about magical items to get the thing far away from Wrecker faster than normal. Bruce and Steve double teamed Thunderball. Both of them had the most athletic bodies to be able to dodge the man's demo ball. Bruce kept trying to break the chain attached to the ball but Thunderball was a little faster than the doctor in pulling it back before he could even lay a hand on it. Natasha, in the Iron Man suit, took on Piledriver by herself. Not being on the ground, Piledriver's main attack was basically useless. But that didn't stop the villain from hitting the sides of buildings to knock down some debris in an effort to land the spy. That left Tony fighting Bulldozer. And Tony's main method of attack? Talking and pissing Bulldozer off until she charged, then he'd dodge and watch her hit a car, building or whatever else was in the way, including whoever Thor had caught in a net.

This battle went much better than the last battle but... Tony's style of fighting and even Natasha's style left much more property damage than the Wrecking Crew normally left behind. Fury was as furious as he could be considering there wasn't much that the group could do. They were doing the best they could with the new changes and property damage was something that just couldn't be avoided even when the team was at their best. In the end, Fury didn't even call the group back for a debrief. The director was just too fed up to deal with their typical brand of 'bullshit'.

"So, that seemed to go a lot better," Clint commented once the group was back in the tower. Arrow was happily bouncing around at his side and yipping in an attempt to get attention. No one responded. Only he and Thor really left that battle without injury. Everyone else was sore from the double attack and barely any rest. Bruce could tell Clint was exhausted but he was apparently at the point of being so tired he was energized with the last bit of energy left in his body. At this point, Bruce doubted Clint would be able to Hulk-out again without a minimum of ten hours sleep.

"Is everyone alright?" a voice called loudly into the room. No one (but Clint) seemed to recognize the voice. Arrow paused in his jubilation to look about.

"Oh shit," Clint moaned, reaching up and rubbing his face. Bruce, Natasha and Tony turned to look at Clint but before they could ask, a red and black suited figure dropped from the ceiling and down in front of Clint. Deadpool picked the archer up and began patting the man down in an attempt to find any damage. Everyone was surprised to see Wade wasn't wearing his mask on fully. They could all clearly see his face. Clint made no reaction other than to calm Arrow down as the pup was already snarling at Wade. "I'm fine!"

"Oh thank the lord! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" Wade shouted, backing away from Clint. Though Arrow didn't believe Wade was done and so his shifted to stand between his master and the deadly mercenary.

"Dude, too loud," Tony groaned. He had gotten hit on the head by some debris which had dazed him long enough for Bulldozer to get a nice chest hit in and send him into a wall. While Thor's body could withstand a lot of hits, Tony wasn't used to it. Dramatically, Tony walked past the entrapped Clint and curious Wade to drop down onto the couch in the living room. A loud crack echoed throughout the room. Tony sighed. "JARVIS, order a new couch."

"Why would you all go and fight?" Wade asked, turning back to Clint for the answer. Clint shoved the assassin away in an effort to make sure nothing bad happened. Already he could feel Hulk stirring up at his agitation with Wade. Clint sighed deeply, trying to give Hulk a calming effect. His anxiety around Wade has certainly gotten worse with Hulk in the back of his head. Normally he and Wade were much cooler than this but right now, Clint was too afraid to be. Arrow growled at Wade, sensing his master's unease at being around Wade for too long. Wade wasn't fazed.

"Why wouldn't we?" the archer snarled. Wade looked surprised at Clint's words. "We have to help."

"Do you get paid?" Wade countered. Steve's mouth dropped open in surprise. Bruce looked to Natasha for explanation as to why Wade would think that was okay. But Natasha was stunned as well. Tony lifted himself over the backend of the couch to stare at the group. Even he wasn't that much of an ass to charge people for helping them. Thor just seemed confused. Clint shook his head. "Do you get health insurance? Do you get vacations?"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Tony wondered, shifting to sit up further even as Thor asked what health insurance was. Wade turned to the genius, having already learned that Thor was a bit oblivious. Thankfully Bruce tried to explain what health insurance was and why the Avengers couldn't get it.

"So you seriously do all this for free?" Wade questioned.

"You don't?" Steve replied, sounding more repulsed and upset than curious. Wade glanced over to Steve. There was a moment's pause as Wade examined Steve in his female form. Almost like he was sizing up the danger that the red headed body could pose to him.

"Maybe," Wade stressed almost sounding guilty about it but not really guilty.

"What do you really want, Wade? I doubt you came here to check up on me. Hell, it would be the first time you ever did," Clint mentioned. Wade opened his mouth to argue but one could clearly see the deadly merc searching his memory for proof of Clint lying. Clint shifted his weight to one side as he gave Wade a bored look. It was his first sign of saying 'I told you so.' After a few seconds, Wade tried to speak again but stopped. The longer this went on for, the more Clint and everyone else grew frustrated with the man. Arrow huffed and ventured off, thinking that the tense situation was over. He had no idea how wrong he'd be.

"Give it up and answer the question," Natasha snapped aggravated on Clint's behalf. Wade chuckled. He loved it when people tried to order him around. Made him feel important in his otherwise useless life. Wade turned and glared into the sky for a moment before looking to Natasha with a sheepish smile.

"Okay, well... Ilostthestone," Wade rushed. When no one spoke after a seconds pause, Wade continued on. "Totallynotmyfault, itwastherethennotandIdon'tknowwhathappened."

There was an extendedly long pause as everyone tried to translate what the immortal man had stated. Clint was (not surprisingly) the first to understand what Wade had told them. His eyes flashed green in extreme anger and Hulk surged forward enough to bulge out the arm muscles on Bruce's body. Not even noticing the change, Clint surged forward and slammed his fist into Wade's face. Thanks to Hulk's added strength, Wade's nose broke, he lost two teeth and was sent head over heels across the room and into the far wall to leave a small dent.

Arrow launched himself after Wade, barking the whole way. Seeing Wade not get up right away, he stood guard, still barking at the injured man. Tony glanced over to Clint in a reprimanding way but stopped when the archer growled, sounding much like Hulk before he turned around to walk off. Natasha caught his arm and shook her head, basically asking him to stay for now. Clint sighed deeply and Hulk settled in his mind, understanding the fight was with Wade and not the others. His shoulders drooped in exhaustion and for a moment it looked like Clint was about to collapse. Bruce shifted closer to the archer, ready to tell him that he needed rest before Hulking out again. This was taking a toll on both Clint and Bruce's body.

"What just happened?" Tony decided to ponder aloud safely as he pointed between Clint and Wade. Clint looked to Natasha to see if she could explain but she had an eyebrow raised at him. Apparently she hadn't been able to translate what Deadpool said either. Clint cussed on his breath.

"That fucking moron lost the item that did this to us," Clint clarified for everyone. Wade sat up (scaring Arrow into running to Clint for comfort), his face already healing, as Natasha snarled turning to go finish what Clint had started. Steve's mouth dropped open in surprise. Bruce looked to the heavens as if there was someone out there who could help. Thor shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest in a disapproving manner. Tony groaned and dropped back onto the couch.

"I didn't 'lose' it. It was stolen from me," Wade stated as if that made any difference to the team whatsoever.

"Stolen?" Bruce called, surprised that someone could get the drop on Wade.

"Do you know by who?" Steve inquired, trying to get a lead on who they should speak to next. Honestly, the less interaction with Wade seemed better for the whole team. Wade stood up from the ground and headed back toward Clint as if that was the safest place for him in the whole room. Arrow snarled at the man but Clint put a comforting hand on his neck to stop it. The pup looked confused by the need but did stop snarling.

"Yeah, stolen. As in one second everything was good and then the next, my safe house was trashed, the safe ripped apart and no magical stone," Wade replied as if no one understood what stolen meant. He completely ignored Steve, acting as if the captain hadn't even spoken. Clint spun on the merc, grabbing and lifting the man off the ground and slamming him against the hallway wall. Arrow took this as a sign to start barking again.

"You hide it in a safe? In your well known safe house location?!" Clint cried. Natasha, even as pissed as she was, was quick to jump to Clint's side and gently pull him off the merc. Amazingly Hulk hadn't come through during this incident and so Natasha found it easy to pull Clint away. Apparently the big guy was trying to be friendly now. Not that it was the best timing in the world but at least it was a start. But in truth, Hulk tried to come forward but Bruce's body had almost no energy left for a transformation, so Hulk could only quietly rage in Clint's mind. Clint calmed down enough to turn and soothe Arrow but everyone could see that both were ready to tear Wade apart. Clint also had no idea that he couldn't change over at this point and was trying to stay calm and not let Hulk loose on Wade. Wade gave pause at Clint's words.

"It's not... Well known," Wade meekly defended.

"Is it not 352 Court St in Brooklyn New York?" JARVIS suddenly supplied even though no one asked for his input. The AI had previously looked up Wade's history during the first invasion of the tower. Wade looked around surprised.

"How did you find out about that?" Wade called even as he glanced about for everyone else's reaction. "Mysterious voice that everyone heard..." How Wade didn't remember about Tony's AI, JARVIS, no one would understand. "Oh... That makes more sense."

"I looked in a phone book," JARVIS intoned, ignoring the crazy ranting at the tail end. For a moment no one spoke.

"You have your safe house publicly listed under your own name?" Natasha hissed, backing away from Clint to stare at the insane merc. Clint gave her a smug look that basically told her that this was the reason Coulson had never liked Clint and Wade hanging out more than necessary. Arrow huffed again and headed to the kitchen to get some water from his bowl.

"Maybe..."

"Definitely," JARVIS confirmed. There was a long pause as everyone processed what had been discussed. For a moment everyone wanted to tell the merc he was stupid for that but then they began to realize where they were standing. Tony Stark, the man who publicly announced he was Iron Man during a press conference, owned Stark Tower that was publicly now being called Avenger's Tower.

"Backtracking," Steve said, starting to change the conversation in hopes of a safer topic. Wade frowned and turned to look at the captain. "Do you know who may have stolen it?"

"No. It's not like there was painted words on the wall saying 'DOOM WAS HERE!'" Wade supplied. For a moment no one spoke. They seemed to be doing that a lot with Wade here but they really needed to take that moment to process the information that Wade was giving them. Tony sat up from the couch to look at the others.

"Would he seriously do that?" Tony questioned thinking there could be no way but it had been known to happen before. Arrow returned and looked around. The tense standoff has seemed to settle and now things were back on track. Pleased with this information, the pup headed over to a dog bed settled in the far corner of the room. All this stress was too much on him. He needed rest.

"That doesn't sound anything like him," Steve agreed. "He's usually very methodical in all his dealings."

"Didn't Richards once mention a virus he added to the Doombots?" Bruce mentioned, thinking back on his past dealings with the Fantastic Four. Indeed, Reed Richards had sent a virus into the Doombots. A few years prior, Doom had been bragging about his newest firewall on the bots. On the first of April, Reed hacked the robots and broke easily past the firewall after only an hour of attempting such feat. At first, Reed was ready to make them all blow up but considering Doom was currently not doing anything illegal with the bots, Reed didn't feel right doing that. But he wanted to prove that he could do it. Johnny, who had come by to check on him, suggested that the bots leave some sort of message when they do a bad deed. Reed liked it and ever since certain Doombots would write 'Doom was here' on any flat surface they passed. Doom had yet to clear the code from each of his bots as it kept refreshing into newer models. Tony chuckled.

"For a genius, he certainly isn't great at clearing code," the genius laughed.

* * *

 **There is no amount of excuses and apologies that I can give that can forgive an almost two month hiatus. So... I'll just skip that.**

 **As I said last chapter, we put an offer on a house. Well, two weeks ago we moved in. And today was the first day that I really had to edit my old chapters. I am currently writing the last chapter of the story and already have almost two chapters of the sequel. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with everything and we can get back to a normal schedule.**

 **Little Clint is doing wonderful. He is a very talkative three year old and loves using swear words correctly (thankfully only at home). He's a big kid, only like four inches short of riding all types of Disney rides. Now that he's talking more he's able to show us and tell us more of what he wants. So, we've learned he loves Monster Jam and basically Monster trucks in general so he's gotten a rather large collection of those going on. He also has an almost 200 Hot Wheels cars collection going on.**

 **Darius is now 3 months old, closer to 4 months now. He is actually doing wonderful. We had a small scare with him over his vision and possible seizure activity but everything got cleared and he's good. In fact, speaking with Clint's Early Intervention teachers, Darius is advanced for his age. Shocking considering Clint is still pretty far behind his classmates even though he has progressed a ton this year but it's true. He's babbling a lot and already it sounds like he says mama and dada. He can sit up, still has a little trouble on his own but can hold himself up pretty good. Already has been rolling over for a month and a half now, can just recently do it with his arms wrapped tightly to his sides. He's rather steady with his hands and his legs have been supporting him when we try and get him to stand, it's just his balance throwing him off right now.**

 **Well, onto the Review Responses:**

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 **Reviews:**

 _sammygirl1963_ – I'm glad you believed the last chapter to be worth the wait. Hopefully this one is just as good. Movie time was fun to write as most of the time that I was writing that chapter, I was actually watching said movie. As for Hulk falling asleep, I just see the lack of stress and adrenaline being the main reason for this. Once everyone was calm, Hulk was able to calm down and relax. Thus, all the stress and adrenaline left and so did he into a calm restful state. Yup, the genius and the soldier had to go and pass out. Between the two of them I figured they had to most restless schedule in the two bodies that probably needed it the most. The mission was definitely fun. But trying to figure out good enemies for them to fight that I knew was hard. I only started following Marvel after the first Iron Man film and even then, I only followed the main Avengers and as a group, they seemed to only fight Hydra or AIM, but I used them too much, so I had to explore. Hope they worked. Thank you for the congrats on the house. I finally have gotten mostly everything settled so I got a bit of free time to work on this story again. Also, thanks for the well wishes on the family. Thankfully everything is going well on that front.


	13. Chapter 13

"Great, so Doom now has a stone that can magically make us switch bodies. And he can do this whenever he wants and however many times he wants. Just imagine, mid battle we suddenly switch. What else could go wrong?" Clint (as Bruce) snapped, tossing his hands into the air as he walked away from everyone. Arrow perked up from his spot on his dog bed but didn't get up. He was too tired from all this excitement. All he wanted to do now was rest.

"If Doom stays in Latvaria, we have no political power to attack him. Even if we are going to get the stone back," Natasha (as Tony) pointed out as if everyone understood what she meant. Thor (as Clint) shifted. He understood politics more than the others thought but Asgardian politics differed from Midgardian politics.

"I am Asgardian. Your political rules cannot stop me from declaring war on this Latvaria if I deem it so," the thunderer said, finally speaking up. At first everyone was about to deny him and explain why he couldn't but they suddenly realized, Thor was right. Technically, Thor was deemed a foreign diplomat for Asgard. As such, he had the right to declare war. But there was a problem with that.

"Before you do that, we'll have to make an announcement on what happened to us," Steve (as Natasha) explained to the group. Everyone turned to the captain. "Wouldn't look good if the world saw Clint declaring Asgardian war and Doom would be able to use that against us when the truth comes out. Same for if Tony does it. It's not actually Thor."

"Fuck man. Declaring war sounds awesome. Can I be hired help?" Wade questioned, ignoring the politics involved in who should declare war. "Oh sh-! Did I just use my one swear?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Tony (as Thor) called to the merc, distracted from everyone else discussing Thor trying to declare war no matter what his form may be. Wade focused on Tony as he seemed to be having the most interesting conversation.

"I thought this was PG-13. Oh wait, not a movie... Different rules. T? What the hell does 'T' mean?" Wade cried, confused on the rules of story writing. Which as we all know, T means Teen so some swearing in acceptable. "So, I can swear?" Not a lot... "FUCK YEAH!"

Tony just shook his head at the merc. There was just no understanding insane. "Not insane!" My point...

"When would we make the announcement?" Natasha questioned, reclaiming Tony's and Wade's attention. "Doom can change us whenever and we don't know how many times. We wouldn't want Clint's form declaring Asgardian War when Tony's form ends up attacking later on."

"When we make the announcement, we'll explain that Doom has the ability to change us at random but whoever attacks will be Thor's spirit and mind," Steve replied.

"Will the government accept this?" Bruce (as Steve) asked.

"We can only hope," Clint declared. "It's the only plan that works."

"Now, when do we make the announcement?" Steve inquired, turning to Tony for the answer.

* * *

It was determined after an intense discussion that the next morning would have the best turn out of reporters as Pepper could send the word out to the maximum amount. And lots of reporters were itching to get an insight, even if shared, as to what was happening in the secretive Avengers Tower. Tony used JARVIS to send a message to Pepper and to as many news stations as possible. Almost before the last message was sent out, Christine Everhart agreed to come and even had the audacity to ask for an exclusive interview even though JARVIS's message made it clear that no one would get private privileges. Tony was tempted to ban the woman from the conference but she was the only reporter that he really trusted to believe them and print the truth of the situation. Thankfully the AI ignored Tony's complaints and simply didn't reply to the reporter in true Tony Stark fashion. Most of the rest of the night was discussing what would and would not be said.

"We can't flat out accuse Doom in the statement," Steve argued after Thor once again mentioned it. The thunderer shook his head.

"This whole discussion with these people was so that Asgard could declare war on this doomed fellow," Thor fought as if it made any bit of difference. Steve sighed. He was getting nowhere with the thunderer. Asgardian politics and Midgarian politics really showed their differences in this conversation. Yes, Thor understood politics and was getting better at Midgarian politics but when the two converged like this, Thor always reverted to following Asgard and not the politics of where he was. A dangerous ideal for a soon to be king.

"Yes, Thor. Asgard can declare war. The Avengers cannot. We can't go around accusing anyone without positive proof. If you would like to make a separate statement at the end of our discussion, you may. All we..." Steve began explaining as he waved his hand to the other Avengers. "...can say is an informant has an idea of who wields the power but we won't act without proof."

"Was there not proof painted on the undying man's safe haven?" Thor pointed out. Steve winced, glancing over at Wade who had yet to leave (much to Clint's consternation). He let out a sigh and turned to see if anyone else was going to help him make his point.

"Doom has gotten away with a lot of arguments against him due to his ruling over Latvaria. He can be in his country while sending a few 'rogue' Doombots to do his bidding. Without actual proof that Doom controls these robots, Doom basically has diplomatic immunity," Bruce said, trying to help. Sadly, his use of air quotes made that null in void as Thor never understood what the quotes meant. So the thunderer frowned at the doctor.

"I do not understand," Thor grumbled, not liking when he couldn't understand what people were saying around him.

"I do... I get that reference," Wade softly called. Clint, who was stuck beside the merc, raised his eyebrow at the man in annoyance. Natasha, who was on the other side of the archer, quickly and quietly explained. Tony, the only other one close enough to hear, snorted at the memory that Wade was bringing up.

"Everyone but the government seems to understand that the Doombots are only controlled by Doom. But at legal trials, Doom makes up some reason as to why these bots accused of the evil misdoings was not controlled by him. Without definitive proof that the evil bots are indeed controlled by Doom, the government can't do anything to Doom without declaring war on Latvaria," Bruce continued, trying to make it easier for Thor to understand what was going on. Thor frowned, pondering this new information. Asgard was always the strongest in the realms and so if Odin even had a bit of inclination that the person or group was wrong, Odin would attack. But that brought a new question to his mind.

"Can your government not beat Doom in war?" the thunderer questioned, thinking back on all the various wars that Odin declared on the other realms. Tony perked up.

"Oh, we'd destroy him if the government backed The Fantastic Four and even us in a war," Tony commented. Thor smiled. "Hell, we might be able to do it without even ourselves. Just the military."

"Then I see no issue declaring war," he replied. Clint snorted and shook his head. As a tactician, he understood the issue that the government faced it. Maybe even more so than the others.

"That's only if Latvaria fights us alone. A few other powerhouse countries are already backing Latvaria. And if we can't get any other country that isn't backing Latvaria to back us up, well... We'll get our asses handed to us so fast that the Chitari would look like a cake walk," Clint mentioned. Thor frowned again.

"Should I fear these other 'powerhouses'?" Thor inquired. Clint paused for a moment. Would those other countries risk the wrath of Asgard in an effort to protect Latvaria from Thor? Finally he shook his head no.

"Nah. I doubt anyone wants to be on Asgard's bad side," Clint soothed. Thor nodded.

"That tis good news," Thor stated.

"So we're agreed? Thor, you won't declare war on Doom and Latvaria until the end of our announcement?" Steve wondered, wanting to make damned sure that no one would mess this conference up. Thor nodded in agreement.

"I shall do as you say."

"Great. So anything else?" Steve asked of the rest of the group. As they began to silently mull over the whole plan, no one could come up with anything to add. After a moment, Wade slowly raised his hand. In all the discussions, everyone (but Clint) had pretty much forgotten about him.

"What about me?" he asked. Everyone turned to face him in surprise except for Clint. The archer groaned and turned to snarl at him.

"You aren't involved," the archer hissed.

"But I started this and Doom stole the item from me," Wade mentioned as if it truly bothered him. Clint scoffed at the merc but was cut off before he could retort.

"You are not part of the Avengers. You can do whatever you want," Steve cajoled, much to Clint's ire. Wade smiled, pleased with this news more than anyone could ever realize.

"Awesome."

* * *

For the rest of the night, everyone enjoyed dinner and headed off to bed as it had grown rather late throughout their discussions of plans. Wade decided (on his own) that he'd stay the night with Clint no matter what anyone else had planned. Once Clint realized what the mercenary wanted, he jumped into the vents after pushing Arrow inside and quickly moved to Hulk's playroom. There, he locked himself and the pup inside. Almost an hour later, Wade was standing at the door, begging Clint to let him inside. Thirty minutes after that saw Natasha in the other room dragging Wade out and threatening to disembowel him for the rest of her unnaturally long life if he continued to bother Clint.

Tony and Bruce both headed down to their shared lab in an effort to begin catching up on all of the genius's backed up work. This time, with Bruce having nothing to do, Tony would work and the doc would look over whatever is completed and correct any mistakes the genius made in Thor's larger and stronger body. Steve headed off to Natasha's room to rest and maybe catch up on cleaning some of her weapons. After so long of not touching them, he wondered how much Natasha would want to kill him when she checked them once they returned to normal. And now seeing as that might happen sooner rather than later, Steve needed to catch up.

Thor, being the only one left and filled with adrenaline over his upcoming declaration of war, headed off to the archery range. Considering he was now in Clint's form, his usual training methods might not help him. But if he trained like Clint, it may help. Forgetting that he was only human now, Thor rather quickly overworked himself until he simply fell asleep on the ground in the range.

It wasn't until around four in the morning that the Avengers (and Wade) woke to Hulk screaming and JARVIS setting off the Hulk alarm in a desperate attempt to have someone rescue Arrow from the green giant. No one paid much attention to their situation or even where they woke, they just raced to the elevator and waited to JARVIS to bring them to the right floor. Thankfully it took only a few minutes before everyone was outside the playroom. Natasha's body was at the door, trying to encourage the terrified Arrow out of the back corner of the room without letting Hulk seeing the door open. With everyone gathered, they began looking about in confusion.

"Oh shit, not again!" Clint's body cried in true Tony Stark fashion. Those words had Natasha's body freeze and slowly turn her head to look back at the group gathered behind her. Arrow took that moment to run for the door and slipped past the red head. Hulk glanced down at the door but did nothing to try and escape.

"Indeed, I do believe we have been switched again," Steve's body confirmed, glancing down at his own form in wonderment.

"Fuck me," called Natasha's body as she looked herself over, completely forgetting about the open door behind her and Arrow curling around her leg. "Why couldn't I be Tony? Or Thor? Or anyone but Nat?"

"Clint?" Wade asked, highly confused as to who was who. Natasha's body stopped in her examination to look at the merc and slowly nod. Wade fought to not laugh at the irony. Satisfied with that, Wade didn't look to see who the others were.

"We should do what we did before. State who you are, Natasha," Thor's body stated. Before Clint (as Natasha) had a chance to state who he was, Steve's body chimed in.

"I am Thor."

"Tony," Clint's body chuckled, staring pointedly at Clint. The archer glared at his body in an attempt to threaten the genius locked inside but Tony didn't seemed fazed. Arrow whimpered, looking to his master's body and the body he was hiding beside. He didn't like his master fighting with what seemed to be himself. But Arrow could tell that his main master was now this female body.

"Bruce," Tony's body calmly added. A quick glance around the room showed that everyone able to introduce themselves had done so. "So that leaves..."

"Stars and Stripes," Tony (as Clint) pointed out a cackle of laughter. Hulk let out a roar of bellowed rage, making everyone turn back to look at the play yard. Clint finally noticed the door to it was opened. For a moment, the archer wanted to close it but he decided to give the green guy the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully Hulk learning about friendship would stop him from attacking everyone.

"NO LIKE!" Hulk roared into the room once he noticed he had gotten all their attention. He leaned down to look at all of them through the door but didn't move to escape as he feared how the group would react. Arrow jumped to his feet and barked at Hulk but when the green guy turned his upset gaze onto the pup, Arrow quickly backed down.

"It's okay. We'll solve this," Bruce (as Tony) tried to sooth. Hulk let out a sound that seemed similar to a toddler pitching a fit. Arrow imitated it.

"NO MORE!" Hulk shouted before suddenly becoming rather subdued. He let out a whine like sound. "No more changing."

"We have to change back! I ain't staying as a woman!" Clint snapped in return, pretty much forgetting who he was speaking too. Arrow huffed in agreement as Hulk's eyes narrowed. That was not what he had meant. Thinking over his words more carefully, Hulk spoke again.

"Puny Banner come back. Then done," the green guy agreed. Bruce suddenly blushed. As much as Bruce had always wanted to get rid of Hulk, this experience showed how much he'd miss the rage beast. Especially now that Hulk showed he wasn't just a rage monster and that he was trying to work with the group and gain friends.

"Hulk, can we have Steve back now?" Natasha (as Thor) questioned, figuring that Steve was the best figure to make the announcement of what happened to the Avengers at the press conference they had in a little under three hours. Figuring Hulk wasn't listening in when they made the plans, Natasha continued. "We have a very important press conference that he needs to attend to."

"Shield man out... Shield man not strong," Hulk grunted sounding more displeased with this idea than the others would be. The others traded looks. What the hell did that mean? Surprisingly, Clint was the first one who figured it out.

"Wait, Steve's passed out?" the archer cried, cracking Natasha's voice into a womanly squeal. Hulk frowned at the wordage and hesitated to figure out what Clint meant before nodding. For a moment no one did anything. Then Clint let out a soft bark of laughter. "Wow... Cap can't handle Hulk..."

"Um... Did you ever pass out?" Bruce questioned, trying to process the fact that he wasn't always unconscious when Hulk took over. Somehow knowing he may have been awake and aware scared him more than he knew.

"Not sure," Clint replied, praying that it was the answer Bruce wanted. Sadly, Hulk undermined that by shaking his head no. Bruce frowned. He had never thought to ask if Clint remembered anything. The doc focused on Hulk.

"Have I?" the doc inquired.

"In beginning," Hulk accented. Bruce grunted in surprise. Unsure if Hulk would have the answer or not, Bruce hesitated before asking his next question.

"Is that why I can't remember what happens during a transformation?" Hulk shrugged. He remembered everything Bruce did when he was unconscious so he couldn't understand that it didn't work the same way.

"Okay, look. I'm glad that you're learning new things about your relationship with Hulk but, we got a press conference in like two hours that Capsicle was supposed to lead," Tony suddenly pointed out, bringing attention back to the main issue. For a moment, no one said anything. Then Clint snorted.

"Looks like you get your way," the archer retorted. Everyone turned to him confused. "You're in charge."

"And isn't that a scary thought," Natasha muttered under her breath. Wade, who everyone had mostly forgotten about again, chuckled at the spy's statement. Bruce cringed and thankfully Tony was focused on Clint, Natasha and Wade to really notice. Arrow yipped playfully at the group, wanting to go upstairs to get breakfast. Clint leaned over and rubbed the pup to try and get him to shush.

"Maybe we should go over some things to say," Bruce added. Tony spun to look at the doc with an insulted look. Bruce just shrugged and gave him a sympathetic saddened face. Thor grunted, having been patient in waiting to declare war.

"I see not how this affects our plans," the thunderer rumbled. Clint shook his head.

"It doesn't big guy. Just makes it a bit more complicated," the archer tried to explain. Thor frowned, making Clint sigh as he realized that the thunderer didn't get what he meant. Slowly he went over and put his hand on Thor's shoulder and started to lead him away. Wade and Arrow silently followed. Natasha shook her head and looked back to Hulk who was still staring at them from his play room.

"What are we gonna do about him?" she wondered to the remaining group. Tony and Bruce looked at her to see her jerk her thumb over to Hulk. Slowly, they turned to look at Hulk who was watching them curiously.

"Hulk come out?" the green guy wondered as he looked over all of their faces. Tony winced and realized the predicament he was in. No matter how he answered, he'd be hurting someone's feelings. If he let Hulk out, it just proved how much he didn't trust Clint. But if he made Hulk stay, it proved how much he didn't and would maybe never trust Hulk to be good.

"I don't see why not... But, its Tony's decision," Bruce replied when Tony didn't say anything. He and Natasha had no idea about the genius's internal battle. In fact, they weren't even thinking about what this would do with either Clint's or Hulk's relationship with not only Tony but also with the team. They just wanted Tony to choose and not get upset over whatever they say. Tony glanced over at Natasha and Bruce for help. Neither had a face on that he could read either way. Finally, Tony realized his relationship with Clint was already screwed up. Making this last decision may ruin it but... He was trying to start a new relationship with Hulk. If he denied Hulk, it may ruin any chance of forming a relationship.

"I set up the common room to be Hulk proof. You can hang out there," the genius decided, already feeling guilty and praying that Clint would sooner or later forgive him. No one saw Clint wince at the genius's words but Arrow did whimper at his side and asked to be pet. Hulk smiled such a big smile at the group that Tony wondered briefly if his face would break before the green guy slowly began shifting through the door. With Hulk working on getting out of his playroom (a feat that had not been set in as a just in case), Bruce looked to Tony.

"Why don't we go upstairs and discuss what we should say so that this doesn't backfire on us," Bruce suggested. Tony frowned.

"I've dealt with the press my whole life. I think I can handle them," the genius stated but began to leave with Bruce trailing beside him.

"I know you can handle the press but you have to realize, Doom will also be analyzing your words to try and twist them so that he is the innocent one and we, as the Avengers, attacked him for no reason," Bruce described. Tony winced, now beginning to feel self-conscious about being the one in charge.

"Do you want to do this then?" Tony snipped, trying to sound upset with Bruce but the doc could hear the nervous undertone. He glanced back at Natasha, who was gently trying to help Hulk escape his room. She, as if feeling the doc's gaze, turned to face him. Knowing that there was nothing she could do, she gave him a look that basically encouraged him to handle it and that she trusted him to be able to.

"Sadly, the world seems to think that you are second in command. Because Steve can't make the announcement, you have to," Bruce mentioned. Tony winced.

"What if I made myself incapacitated?" he half joked. Bruce's eyes narrowed. "Fine... Let's get this over with..."

* * *

 **A little faster posting this time. Sorry, got busy this weekend.**

 **Little Clint is doing well. Making some new friends at daycare and remember's peoples names after only hearing it once. Little Darius is also doing well. Being a bit of a pain in the butt course, that's cause he's in pain. Apparently, at only 4 months old, he's already started teething. Makes him pretty cranky at night and for feedings. Means my husband and I haven't been getting much sleep. Hopefully he'll start feeling better soon and sleep through the night again.**

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 _sammygirl1963_ – Thank you for your continued review and love for this story. I'm glad you are enjoying it and that I keep you enthralled. Also, thank you for the kind words about my family.


	14. Chapter 14

"So you seriously want us to believe that you are Tony Stark?" Christine Everhart shouted loudly over the sea of voices around her. Tony (as Clint) nodded, his trademark smirk plastered over Clint's body's face. Christine laughed and glanced around at the silenced reporters around her. Already the other Avengers could tell this wasn't working well. "You can't be serious."

"Sadly, Mrs. Everhart, I could not be more serious. This situation has been affecting us for almost a month now," Tony stated. Behind him, Clint (as Natasha) winced. Over a month and now he'd have to deal with Natasha's monthly time and as he learned with Steve (currently Bruce/Hulk) her monthly time didn't always last only a week. He had no idea that Natasha's body was so messed up that she actually didn't always have a monthly time. Sometimes she went three or four months in between.

"Where is Captain America then? Or are you the only one affected?" Christine snidely remarked. Tony bristled and looked back at Thor (as Steve), who looked ready to attack. He shifted his hand into the normal 'stand-by' motion that he and Steve had created. Thor frowned but didn't do anything else.

"Sad to say, the entire team was affected by this situation. Yes, I am Tony Stark currently residing in the body of Hawkeye of the Avengers," Tony announced again, making deliberately sure to use Clint's codename as still no one has put two and two together on that. "Hawkeye," Tony continued and Clint stepped forward making some of the reporters gasp in shock. "Is currently residing in the body of Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow. Natasha," Clint stepped back, a slight blush on his face, as Natasha (as Thor) stepped forward. "Is currently residing in the body of Thor Odinson. Thor, Prince of Asgard..." Again, Natasha stepped back as Thor stepped forward. "...is currently residing in the body of Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Steve, who is unable to come here, is currently residing in the body of..." Here Tony paused. While people did know that Bruce (as Tony) was the human half of Hulk, not everyone had connected the fact that the Bruce Banner who now lived in Stark Tower was the same Bruce Banner that turned into Hulk.

"Go on," Bruce softly encouraged, knowing of Tony's internal debate as this had been heavily discussed between the duo before. Tony nodded.

"Steve Rogers is currently residing in the body of Bruce Banner, also known as Hulk," Tony continued. The reporters erupted in questions. Figuring this was going to happen, Tony waited a minute before raising his hands. Amazingly enough that slowly silenced them.

"You mean to tell us that for the past year or so, Bruce Banner aka the Hulk has been residing in New York?" Christine shrilly called out. Tony sighed.

"Yes," was all the genius could get out before the crowd erupted in outrage and questions all over again. Tony again tried to raise his hands to silence them but this time it didn't work. Growling in anger, Tony leaned closer to the mics set up on the platform before him. "ENOUGH!" he shouted. That worked much faster than raising his arms. "Yes, Bruce has been staying here in Stark Tower. Yes, Bruce is the human ego of _Hulk_. But... Since the Battle of Manhattan, when was the last time anyone saw Hulk rampaging about without another Avenger present?" Silence reigned over the large gathering as everyone tried to think over the genius's words. "Exactly. Without this situation no one would have even noticed."

"We should have been told!" someone from the crowd shouted. Tony frowned and searched out the voice but couldn't. The guilt party was lost in a sea of faces.

"Were you told about the start of the Fantastic Four over at the Baxter Building? Were you told about Norman Osborn having a split personality of the Green Goblin? I made the announcement that I was Iron Man and no one cared. Hell, my home in Malibu was completely destroyed by the Mandarin and no one minded when I returned to New York. So why does poor Bruce need to announce that he is currently here in New York City?" Tony countered touching on a subject that he and Fury had secretly been discussing for a while now. "Bruce is an American citizen just like the rest of you. He has the same freedoms as the rest of you. That means, he can move about freely and live wherever he wants to. Besides, since the Battle of Manhattan, I have fixed up Stark Tower so that if Hulk does come out, the rooms can withstand his wrath until we can calm him back down."

"We still should have been told," the voice again insisted from somewhere else in the crowd. Behind Tony, Bruce shifted around in self-conscious worry. This sounded so similar to what he had first argued when Tony invited him to stay in the tower. And most of what Tony was saying was what he had told the doc.

"Would you care if suddenly someone said that the X-Men were going to move to New York? Would they have to announce themselves? Hell, does your neighbor have to announce to the world that they are a mutant? What makes you draw the line?" Tony snapped, using the same words he had used on Fury when the director mentioned that the World Security Council was coming up with a national list of super heroes and known villains. "Yes, this world is filling up with the unknown and dangerous but it's still no different than before. Someone doesn't need to announce to the public that they are moving into Boston and they have a carry and conceal gun license. Or that they are specially trained in martial arts or even know how to use a sword. Yes, Hulk is potentially more dangerous than those traits but Bruce has control."

"Does Steve Rogers have that same amount of control?" a second voice cried out. Tony almost made a face at those words. He'd have to tread carefully here.

"Steve Rogers is rapidly learning. Until he gains complete control or there is a battle that Hulk is needed, he will stay inside Stark Tower," Tony announced. Behind him, Clint grunted in what sounded to be pleasure. Tony turned slightly too just about see the archer out of the corner of his eye. Yup, Clint was impressed with his ability to skirt around the actual question.

"Does this mean that Bruce Banner is currently in your body?" a third voice hollered, bringing everyone back around to the actual reason for this announcement. Tony quickly focused back on the crowd of reporters before him.

"Yes. Bruce Banner is currently residing in my own body," Tony declared, glad to be back on the main topic. Behind him Bruce muttered something that had Clint snorting. Turning to see what was going on, Tony noticed Natasha has a small smile on her face and Thor had a rather large grin that looked odd on Steve's face. Knowing he couldn't really ask what happened until later, Tony made a mental note to ask what that was about before promptly forgetting it and turning back to continue the public announcement. "We, as the Avengers, have an idea on who may have caused this situation. Sadly, they are out of our reach and we will not do anything until we have definitive proof that it is this person."

Again, behind Tony there was a grumble of words that he could not catch but this time he was determined not to turn around see what was going on. The reporters began twittering with questions but this time Tony was not going to get thrown off topic by their questions. He was going to complete this so Thor could make his announcement and then they'd be done.

"An informant of ours has told us who he believes has the ability to do this to us and we plan on following up with this information. But we will not be attacking as a group," Tony stated.

"Can you give us an idea on who did this?" Christine called out to the genius. Tony paused. As much as he would love too, this was the main thing that Bruce had stressed. Any indication that they want to go after Doom as the Avengers means that Thor declaring war on Latvaria could be seen as a strategic attack from the Avengers and not Asgard.

"Sadly no. We wouldn't want our suspect to hide or destroy any evidence we may find," Tony explained. He then spent the next few minutes going over some random stupid questions that the reporters conjured up. Most of the questions relied on Bruce being in New York until Tony finally snapped. "There is to be no more comments on Bruce Banner living here in New York City. Unless someone can come up with a more viable reason for his announcing where he wants to live."

With that said, Tony stepped back from the podium without accepting another question. Apparently he was done with this conference. None of the press seemed fazed by this as it was really rather typical of Tony. He'd normally end with a bang and step away. And no matter how much they called out for more info, Tony wouldn't turn back. But in this moment, to the press's surprise, Steve's body stepped forward to take over now that the podium was free. Slowly the rest of the Avengers began leaving as well, some giving Steve's body a worried glance but doing nothing about it.

"As the Man of Iron stated to all of you, I am Thor, Prince of Asgard and Heir to the Throne. While I am a warrior of the Avengers, I also have duties of my own to attest to. Since this... Incident has started, I have been unable to perform these duties," Thor bellowed out to the confused crowd. With the Avengers now all off stage, Wade ran up the steps and joined Thor by standing off to his right. Thor nodded slightly to the merc but did not comment on him. "Unlike the Avengers, the proof that our 'informant' has given us is enough for me to take action upon them. As such, I, Prince of Asgard, son to the All-Father Odin, declare war upon Doctor Victor Von Doom of Latvaria and all who wish to stand with him."

These words caused the biggest uproar of questions from the reporters. But Thor, having taken too many lessons from his father, said nothing more. In fact, if he was a wrestler on WWE, Thor would totally have finished with a mic drop. Spinning on his heel, the thunderer walked off with a determined step. Wade, unsure what to do for a moment as Thor 'forgot' to mention that he'd be helping, followed but kept looking back at the mic like he wanted to make some sort of announcement. It took over an hour before the reporters actually started to leave. After three hours and a team of security blocking all access to Stark Towers, they were all gone to write their reports.

"Well, that went better than expected," Tony stated after the reporters all finally left, looking down from the tower's balcony at the now nearly empty street below. Thor and Wade had already left to go after Doom. Their plan was simple: attack fast and attack hard. As Thor was in Steve's body, it shouldn't be too hard. In fact he didn't have to change his fighting style all that much. Especially because Tony had created a fake Mjolnir out of the strongest metals he had in his lab. Metals that Hulk and Thor had previously tested and couldn't destroy but the metal did bend and get dented unlike the Uru of Mjolnir.

"We won't really know until the news later," Bruce commented, rubbing at the edges of the Arc Reactor. He had been able to privately ask Natasha if she had felt the same pain and she had agreed. But he still hadn't had the time to talk to Tony about if this was a constant or not. Standing in the doorway to the balcony, Natasha snorted suddenly. The noise drew everyone's attention to her.

"Later, try now," the spy hissed, turning up the volume on the TV in the living room. Slowly everyone trickled into the room to watch and listen.

 _"Earlier today the group known to the world as the Avengers, announced an odd situation that they have been privately facing. Apparently, these 'heroes' have been switched into each other's bodies. The explanation continued onto why their latest fights were so different and why the Fantastic Four and X-Men covered some battles. Our own Christine has more..."_ A news reporter started before the screen switched to show Christine Everhart standing outside of Stark Tower. Security was already blocking the door. This explained why she was the last reporter to leave.

 _"Supposedly, Tony Stark in the body of the mysterious Hawkeye, lead the charge to announce who was who. Hawkeye's 'soul' is believed to be in Natasha Romanoff's body, aka the Black Widow. Miss Romanoff is to have been moved into the mighty Asgardian prince Thor, who is in Captain Steven Rogers, aka Captain America. And the scariest of all, Captain Rogers is to be Hulk, aka Bruce Banner,"_ Christine began.

"What the hell? That should be the other way around... JARVIS, make note to send a message to this news station that if they continue pressing this issue, they will face a lawsuit," Tony snapped over Christine's voice questioning the validity of the claims.

 _"Hawkeye, Black Widow's long time parter in the secretive group S.H.I.E.L.D, is a logical choice to inhabit the deadly female. And Miss Romanoff, having known him longest could easily act like him. But I am curious to the fact of this being true, what could he be doing behind the scenes?"_ Christine continued. Clint flushed at the reporter's insinuation that he'd use this time to check out his partner's body in private. Natasha admittedly wouldn't mind as Clint had seen it many times before but Clint was interested in another woman. In fact, he was now beginning to pray that she never saw this broadcast. Arrow whined at his master's distress but everyone ignored the pup.

"Shut it off," Tony growled as Christine began going back onto the dangerous topic of Hulk staying in the tower. Raising an eyebrow, Natasha did as told before JARVIS could do so. Bruce turned to the genius in surprise.

"What's wrong?" the doc asked. Tony spun around to face him. The genius's face looked deadly angry, much like Clint would look when angry. Bruce winced at having that particular gaze aimed at him. Arrow growled, wondering what had upset the genius but didn't move from Clint's side.

"I honestly shouldn't be surprised about this but... Come on! How hard is this to believe after the past couple of years? Hell, a mutant could have had this power. Why is that more believable?" Tony snapped as if Bruce was the one reporting. Bruce didn't answer, not that he had the time before Tony continued on his tirade, "Do they seriously think that Clint would take advantage of being in Natasha's body? Hell, I would! If this was fake, I'd totally call Natasha's body! That should be clue one on wither this is fake!"

"Tony, calm down," Natasha warned as Clint slowly got up and slowly snuck out of the living room. No one noticed as Natasha was too busy staring at Tony and Bruce. Heck, Arrow was so into the intense conversation that Clint was able to sneak away alone.

"No! This is fucking retarded! I wouldn't fake this!" Tony shouted at the spy as if she could change people's minds. Natasha scoffed again and shook her head.

"Tony, it's okay. People believe what they want. We can't change that," Bruce tried to soothe. It didn't work.

"But this is true! Nothing to believe!" Tony cried making Arrow bark at the genius. Bruce shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you Tony. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions. If they want to think this is some sort of prank, then there isn't much we can do," Bruce explained as if it solved the entire matter. Tony hissed in anger and went to speak but Natasha took that moment to look around.

"Where's Clint?" she called, changing the subject so fast that Tony and Bruce hesitated long enough for JARVIS to answer. Even Arrow looked around for his master.

"Master Clint has locked himself away in his room. He wishes to not be disturbed," the AI told them. For a moment the group just kind of looked at each other, surprised. What could be going on in Clint's head? Tony suddenly laughed loudly, forgetting all about the Avengers' bad press. Arrow whined before rushing off to find his master. He followed the fading scent of where his master went off too.

"I knew that I taught him well!" the genius declared, promptly forgetting that he had just been arguing that Clint wouldn't do something like this only moments before. Natasha's eyes narrowed. While she trusted Clint and honestly didn't care if Clint did do something in her body, she certainly didn't like what Tony was saying.

"He wouldn't," she hissed at the genius. Tony snorted before grabbing at Clint's body's pecs as if they were breasts. Natasha's eyes narrowed into slits. If she was in her body, Tony would have been scared but as she was in Thor's, it just didn't look as threatening. He continued on, squeezing his 'chest' while moaning and groaning erotically. Natasha's eyes darkened even more. "He wouldn't."

"He did spend a year with Tony at varying ages. Who knows what could have been imprinted on him," Bruce mentioned. Natasha growled like a deadly tiger, making Bruce wish he hadn't spoken. Tony chuckled before rubbing his hands all over and making a mix of kissing noises and more moans. "Clint maybe wouldn't have done it before but he might be more likely to do it now."

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Natasha screeched before launching Thor's large form toward Tony. The genius squawked like Clint before dodging out of the way. Thanks to the archer's agile body, Tony got out of the way before Natasha could touch him. Knowing he should escape, Tony took his advantage and rushed off. Over compensating in Thor's body, Natasha took an unnaturally long time before she regained her balance and rushed after Tony.

"Don't forget, Tony is in Clint's body!" Bruce warned loudly. If Natasha heard, she didn't show it as she continued chasing the now laughing genius. With a roll of his eyes, Bruce slowly headed toward the elevator which neither Avenger had used. "Guess I'll see if I can track down the stone and figure out how to use it... Even though I've never seen it."

* * *

 **Ugh... Trying to get back on track with this story is so hard. Thankfully I actually finished writing this whole thing yesterday so I know how it ends. I've already written two chapters of the sequel. Now I just need to type them.**

 **Little Clint is doing well. Having a lot of fun in his preschool section of Daycare. Sometimes this month we're going to meet the teachers at hopefully his new school. Little Darius is also doing well. He enjoys his time at Daycare but apparently misses us during the day so he refuses to sleep at night. We keep thinking we've solved a way of getting him to sleep only to have it not work the next night. Ah well... Hopefully we'll all settle down soon with something.**

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 _sammygirl1963_ – Yeah, switching them again was fun. I still needed to torture Clint and they next best person to torture him with was Natasha. And then I had to figure out where everyone else went. Once I decided Tony as Clint, it all just fell into place. As for Tony and Clint's relationship, yeah... Him being cool with Steve and not with Clint is a big issue. Natasha threatening Wade was fun. In fact, writing him is rather fun but I'm not fully sure I'm doing his character credit. You're welcome for the chapter and I'm so sorry about your family news. I pray for health and well wishes for you and your family.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ \- Hello again. It's fine that you've been gone. Heck, I was gone for a while too. I'm glad you are still enjoying the story and that you are now getting a kick out of Deadpool. Yeah, trying to picture myself suddenly as my brother is a scary thought. Oh god, I just got a chill. Thank goodness something like this can't actually happen, lol.

 _Home3_ \- Haha, all I can picture is Thor demanding a coffee. And here is another chapter.


	15. Chapter 15

For the next two days this is how the Avengers saw themselves. Clint (as Natasha) stayed locked up in his room with Arrow happily at his side, curled up in his bed while listening to the news reports. Every report had at least one person making the assumption that he was using this situation to his advantage. It hurt and embarrassed him in that being the most secretive Avenger, he actually screwed himself over so much. Tony (as Clint) continued to bother Natasha (as Thor) with insinuating that Clint was like his actual son and was fiddling with her body. Unsure if it could be true or not, Natasha smartly took out her anger, fear and humiliation out on Tony. If she tried to question Clint on it all, she was certain she'd make things worse but the more she went without answers, the more she wondered. Bruce (as Tony) alternated his time with tedious lab work and visiting Hulk (with Steve) who willingly stayed in his playroom. Amazingly, Steve didn't wake back up during these two days so Hulk really enjoyed Bruce's visits, especially as the doc was the only one who visited. Bruce used the time to teach Hulk about friendships, the Avengers and general knowledge. In return, Hulk tried to explain how he worked in Bruce's mind.

Thor, with Wade's help, was able to get to Latvaria on the first day (only hours after declaring war on Doom). The second day was scouting and trying to figure out where the stone could be. By the third day, they attacked. Thankfully, for them, Thor's little declaration in the days before had given Doom the chance to decide if it was worth the fight against Asgard. Apparently it wasn't as Thor and Wade stormed right over to where Doom had 'hidden' the stone with minimal resistance. With stone in hand, the duo rushed from Latvarian territory and to the nearest territory that Wade could remember sided with America. Once there, Wade took the stone and made the switch without a second thought.

* * *

Hulk had two seconds to realize that Clint was back in Bruce's body before the mindless rage took over. He told them only once more and that it had better be 'Puny Banner'. In his rage, Hulk noted his playroom door was open. Without truly thinking, Hulk stormed through and rushed out the first glass window he could find. Clint mentally tried calming the big guy down but his voice was lost in the sea of rage that took over Hulk's mind.

Upstairs, Tony (now as Thor) and Natasha (now as Tony) had been chasing each other. Considering Thor's body had been coming down a hall that Tony had just turned, the genius was unprepared and ended up crashing into a wall as soon as the switch happened. A few feet to his left, Clint's body was strewn to the floor as the new soul tripped over their own feet. Slowly the genius got to his feet, thankful that his wall meeting was in Thor's body and not his own. As Tony opened his mouth to ask whoever now inhabited Clint if they were alright, the sound of glass breaking and a loud Hulk roar made the genius rush off. He needed to follow Hulk and lure him back, calmly to the tower before there was any damage done. Only Thor's body could currently do that.

Thor (now Clint) jerked into full awareness at Hulk's roar. Distantly he saw his body rushing off to deal with the issue. Lost in the confusion of the switch and from his soul traveling so far, Thor go to his feet and extended his hand to call on Mjolnir in an effort to help. Nothing happened. Still confused, Thor tried again. And yet again, nothing. It took an extra moment before Thor realized what was happening. He had failed. Devastation hit him so hard he fell to the floor and refused to move even as Natasha's form came by. She stopped and stared at the form before getting to her knees as well.

"Clint?" the spy's body hopefully asked. Thor didn't reply to correct whoever was speaking to him. "Who are you? Are you Thor again? Listen, I'm Steve. Are you okay? I don't remember much of what's happening. Last thing I remember is going to bed and possibly being in Hulk's playroom but I just woke up in Clint's room."

"Clint? Please tell me at least one of you isn't Tony," called the familiar voice of Tony Stark. Steve (as Natasha again) looked up at the voice.

"I'm Steve. I think this is Thor but I haven't gotten a response," the soldier responded. "Guessing you're Natasha?"

"Again," Natasha (as Tony) agreed. Steve gave her a confused look.

"Again?" he asked. Natasha nodded.

"About three days ago, when we were going to hold the conference to announce our situation, we all traded bodies again. You were Bruce and apparently Hulk knocked you out," Natasha explained. Steve mouthed an 'oh'.

"I failed," Thor finally declared. Natasha and Steve focused on the thunderer in surprise. They had assumed this latest switch had to do with Thor and Wade having retrieved the stone. "I had the stone... The dead man claimed he could fix us... I... I should not have trusted him."

"It's okay Thor. Wade probably though he did know what he was doing," Steve soothed. Thor looked up at him.

"I should have tried myself," he argued. Natasha shook her head.

"And make it worse? No, you did the right thing," Natasha stated. Thor frowned but did not reply. It was easy to see that he did not believe them.

* * *

Bruce (now as Steve) looked around confused. He had lasted remembered being in the lab. Thankfully he had been typing some code out and not doing anything dangerous but right now, he was standing in the middle of some woods. No one seemed to be around but Bruce was almost afraid to move. Something was strange. No, he personally felt strange but it was almost a familiar strange.

"Hey Thor, did it work?" called a quickly becoming familiar voice. Bruce spun around to see Wade walking up to him holding an oddly colored stone. And now Bruce realized why it felt familiar. He had switched once again.

"Bruce," the doc said. Wade, who had his mask off, raised his bald eyebrow. "I'm not Thor right now. I'm Bruce Banner."

"Oh..." Wade replied before his eyes widened. He then looked back at the stone before back up at Bruce. "Shit. I fucked up."

"If you call bringing us back to our original switch a 'fuck up' then yes you did," Bruce agreed. Wade chuckled. That was true. He technically didn't mess up as he had indeed switched everyone but they just weren't in their proper bodies like they had wanted. "How were you and... Thor or Steve going to get home?"

"Uh. I've got a plane waiting," Wade mentioned before walking past Bruce. It took the doc a few extra seconds to realize that he should follow. Mentally, he tried to review what had happened. After a few minutes, Bruce looked to Wade.

"How did you use the stone?"

* * *

"I'm gonna kill him," Pepper grumbled for the millionth time. She shook her head as a contraction racked her body. This had been going on for almost three hours already. The doctors here said that they don't think Pepper is going into labor but the fact that the Braxton Hicks aren't stopping, they want her and the baby monitored. "I'm gonna kill him for this."

"Please do so after you calm down. You're aggravating the baby," a nurse calmly stated as she jotted down some notes in the other woman's chart. Pepper grunted and nodded. They had been telling her the same thing over and over again. Apparently if she got stressed at this point, she could aggravate the baby into an early labor. And while Pepper felt calm, everyone still kept telling her to calm down when they saw here. "The doctor will be in again soon to check on you and the baby."

"Can I have my cell phone?" Pepper asked, wondering if getting her mind off the Braxton Hicks would help. The nurse gave her a sad smile. It was a smile that Pepper knew all too well and sighed before the woman even spoke.

"I'm sorry but there is no cell phone use on this floor. It's bad for the babies and for some of our equipment," the woman answered. Pepper sighed. "There has been a call placed to Tony Stark. From what I was last told, Mr. Stark is busy with an urgent matter."

"What the hell could be more urgent than the possible delivery of his child!?" Pepper screeched, wishing she wasn't taking her stress out on the poor woman. The nurse didn't seemed fazed. This type of thing happened rather frequently. As she went to answer, the TV suddenly went into an emergency broadcast. Pepper heard the alert and quickly turned up the volume, fearing for the Avengers. The nurse briefly wondered if she should let Pepper continue watching the news but before she could do anything the broadcast sound turned into the reporter speaking.

 _"And our fears have been realized,"_ the report started, the image quickly being taken over by Hulk busting out of a glass window in the middle of Stark Tower. A few seconds later, Thor burst out a few stories above and took chase. _"This is an official warning that Hulk is on the loose and that Thor is chasing after him. As of right now, we have no idea who is controlling either body but we here at the studio suggest that you consider both of them extremely dangerous."_

"Ah, hell," the CEO cussed. The nurse nodded in agreement. She was actually a Hulk sympathizer. Hulk sympathizers believe that the green guy only got as bad as he did because he was getting cornered by the military. Since working with the Avengers, Hulk has been doing rather well. Yeah, he's not all that great at limiting his destruction of buildings and such but he isn't much worse than the other Avengers.

"I'll see if I can get you a phone," the nurse commented before rushing off. The faster Pepper could get on her phone, the better for everyone.

* * *

Back in Stark Tower, Natasha, Steve and Thor were stunned to see the same news report. In their daze from being switched back, they hadn't even noticed that Hulk and (they were guessing) Tony (as Thor) had left. Everyone but Steve wasn't too surprised as Hulk had said he only wanted one last switch and that it had better be Bruce back with him over anyone else. Five minutes after the report, Natasha accepted a phone call from Pepper.

"What happened?" the CEO demanded without even a hello. Natasha snorted as Arrow wandered into the room. After the switch happened, the pup rushed off to find his master. Natasha wasn't too concerned as JARVIS alerted them if Arrow left the main floors.

"Hello to you too," the spy sarcastically called back, rubbing at her chest as it was bothering her again. But this time if felt different from the 'minor' cold she had suffered a while ago. To be honest, she had felt something odd since switching into Tony's body but sometimes she could ignore it and other times (like now) it bothered her worse and worse.

"Don't do that to me right now," Pepper warned. Natasha frowned, getting up off the couch in front of the TV. Steve gave her an odd look but when she shook her head as she walked away, he went back to watching the new report and wondering how he was going to fix this mess. Thor was too distracted in his misery of failure to notice her leaving. Arrow followed after her. His misery of not finding his master meant he wanted someone nearby who was familiar.

"Why? What's going on with you?" the red head asked as soon as she was out of the living room. Pepper sighed deeply, almost as if forgetting the situation with the Avengers. Arrow huffed and laid down by Natasha's feet.

"I'm in a hospital near the Malibu house. I was getting some bad Braxton Hicks and when JARVIS called my doc, it was recommended that I head there. I've been here going on four hours now," Pepper admitted. Natasha's eyes widened and she looked up at the TV, praying that Tony and Clint (or Hulk) arrived back soon.

"Are you going into labor?"

"No, thankfully. I just need to calm down so the baby can calm down then things should be fine. Sides, I'm now working on getting me transferred to Stark Tower's medical wing." Natasha frowned.

"Should you really do that?" Pepper scoffed over the phone making Natasha roll her eyes. "I mean fly when you are so close?"

"It's not recommended but I'm taking Tony's private jet along with my doctor and some other medical staff. It's currently being loaded with equipment needed in case I start to go into labor. But first I need to stop having these faux contractions," Pepper replied. Natasha nodded. "So, are you gonna tell me what happened?"

"Honestly?" Natasha questioned.

"Yes," Pepper stated. Natasha chuckled lightly.

"I don't know."

"What?"

"One minute, I'm in Thor's body and I'm chasing Tony down the hall cause he's making fun of being in Clint's body and Clint being in mine. The next thing I know I'm in the lab. By the time I got back to where I had been chasing Tony, it was only Clint's body there with mine. Thor and Steve also didn't know. We were all a bit thrown for a loop. But, Hulk had warned us-"

"Hulk warned you?"

"Yeah. He apparently talks and just wants to be friends with all of us. And he especially can't wait to show how gentle he can be with your little one," Natasha explained, having forgotten that Pepper had left before Hulk asked to be friends. As she had been elsewhere, no one informed her of the random change. A rather big oversight on their part.

"Oh..."

"Yeah."

"Now I feel bad for leaving," Pepper moaned. Natasha sighed.

"Trust me, at the time, it was for the best. None of us knew what Hulk wanted. Nor would any of us have expected he wanted to be friends and help with the baby," Natasha replied as if it would make Pepper feel better. "Anyways, Hulk warned us that if his last switch did not have Bruce return, then he would get really mad. So, having Clint returned instead, he must have gone into one of his old rages and Clint was ill prepared to handle it."

"So, did anyone notice the green beast flying the coop, or just me?" Thor's voice loudly called through the tower and into the phone. Natasha flinched at the volume. Steve stood up from the couch to talk to Tony but wouldn't get the chance. Arrow jumped to his feet and happily barked before rushing down the hall. There was a soft humph that Natasha could tell came from Bruce's body.

"Is that Tony?" Pepper wondered. Natasha frowned at the phone. She was half tempted to hang up in order to go yell at Tony and Hulk but considering Pepper's delicate situation, she figured that might not be best. It would really not be good to hang up on a woman on the very close verge to giving birth early.

"Yeah. He and Clint just returned," Natasha answered, turning to face both men exiting the elevator. Clint took one look at her and winced. She nodded in confirmation and if anything, Clint's shoulders sagged even more. While she felt guilty for making Clint feel bad, Natasha knew that she couldn't lie to him. Arrow was bouncing around at the archer's feet, happily trying to lick any bit of skin showing.

"Put Tony on the phone... Now," Pepper demanded. Without a word, Natasha held the phone out to the genius. He paled. It took a lot for Natasha not to quip that she thought she'd never see the look of fear on Thor's face but at this point, everyone was sick of the jokes about each other having changed places. Tony took the phone and didn't even say a word before he started wincing and ducking down as if imaginary blows were raining down upon his head. Right away everyone could tell that Pepper was yelling at the genius.

"Wonder what she's telling him," Clint mumbled, sneaking up next to Natasha as if he was in his own body. Then again, with the amount of time they've all spent in these forms, they were all rather used to how they moved and now even felt. Steve shook his head and stood contemplating sitting back down or joining Clint and Natasha to find out how Pepper was doing. Arrow excitedly barked at Clint, making the archer lean down and pet the pup. After spending so long searching for him, Arrow was glad to reunite with his master.

"That the stress of all this is making her close to giving birth now," Natasha retorted. Clint snickered before stopping and looking at her.

"Are you serious?" Clint asked, sounding more hurt than anything. Natasha looked to him but he was now looking away from her. Lost in his thoughts. Anything she said now wouldn't make a difference to him. Not even Arrow could help him. He was now stuck in the mindset of blaming himself for a situation that really, none of them could control. So Natasha blamed it on the person they all should, Wade Wilson. If that ass hadn't messed with something he couldn't control, then none of this would be happening. They never would have switched bodies, Pepper wouldn't be stressed and halfway around the world and Clint wouldn't be beating himself up, mentally.

"What's going on over here?" Steve wondered, moving over to join them. Arrow whimpered to the captain and got a quick little pat on the head.

"Clint's being Clint," Natasha stated knowing that at this point everyone had an idea of what that meant. Steve nodded, looking at the archer worriedly but not saying anything. Tony then turned to them as he hung up the phone.

"So... Pepper's coming back," the genius told them but he didn't sound all that happy. Steve frowned, getting the hint that there was something to this.

"Something wrong with that?" Steve inquired. Tony jerked his head up.

"What? No! Why would you think that?" the genius cried in quick succession. Steve rolled his eyes and Natasha leveled Tony with a glare that basically asked if he was serious. Tony sighed in defeat. "Trust me... I love that she's coming back but I'm worried. The doc said that the stress is making the baby uber hyper and he's worried that traveling might make it worse."

"And?" Natasha pressed knowing that there was more to it. Tony looked to Clint. They were still in the same spot as before. Hulk wasn't under control. And while Clint had better control than any of them (sometimes even Bruce) it still wasn't complete. Plus with Hulk still trying he could be good, no one knew what to do. Could they really trust Hulk to be easy and gentle with something as little and fragile as a newborn?

"I can... I can go to S.H.I.E.L.D," Clint offered, speaking for the first time. He looked up as everyone turned to him. Arrow huffed and laid down at the archer's feet. After everything, he was so tired and just wanted to rest. "I'll... I'll go to S.H.I.E.L.D until this is fixed and work with Hulk there. Maybe he can make friends with Fury."

"That's a horrible joke," Natasha snapped. Clint smiled softly but she could see he was determined.

"No," Tony decided for them. Everyone looked to him in surprise. For a moment Tony said nothing but then sighed. "Look... I'm sorry for not trusting you before. I really should have."

"Dude, I get it," Clint tried explaining having really given the situation some serious thought after the whole fact. He could see Tony's points and while it hurt that he wasn't trustworthy, had he been in the genius's shoes, he might have done the same thing.

"No. I should have stuck by you. You're my friend. Hell, my brother and adopted son-like figure," Tony started to explain. Clint gave the genius a soft smile. "I don't want you to go. But we will need to have a serious discussion with Hulk. He needs to understand that I don't feel ready for him to hold my child."

"I think he gets that. He's new to the idea of it's you and not him that the issue, but he's learning," Clint added. They all give him a strange look. "To be honest, Hulk's been talking to me. I can hear him, like an added thought but I know it's not mine. But if I'm in front of a reflective surface, I can see him in it. It as much cool as it is freaky."

"Okay. How bout you and me go someplace safe to talk it out more and give Hulk the main rules once the baby is born," Tony suggested, feeling much better about this whole situation than he had in a long, long time. Clint nodded.

"When is Pepper going to be back?" Steve asked before the duo could take off to make plans and rules. Tony frowned.

"Didn't I say that?" he wondered aloud. Steve shook his head. "Well, she's on her way now, so only a few hours or so."

"Are you calling in your medical team to check on her when she lands?" Natasha questioned knowing that Tony wouldn't do it unless she reminded him.

"No. Pep said she'd take care of it," Tony replied. Natasha frowned.

"Give me the phone," she demanded. Tony handed it over and right away, Natasha started dialing and walking off to make this phone call as private as possible. "You're welcome."

* * *

 **Sorry that these chapters keep getting shorter and shorter but... It's almost over.**

 **Little Clint just had his evaluation for the Early Learning Center today. He answered a few questions that the teachers asked before running off and making the room his own. Then they basically followed him and tried to interweave the rest of their tests and questions as he explored. It was funny to watch. And the only reason I got to watch? He wouldn't walk down the hall without me and then refused to stay in the room unless I was in it.**

 **Little Darius is nearly sleeping on his own. We started the 'cry it out' method a few nights ago. It worked the first night. He calmed down nearly right away. The second night, my husband had to give in and bring him downstairs. On the third night, we got him to go down again. Then last night we got a mattress for his crib so he wasn't sleeping in a hand me down bassinet. Had a bit of an issue at putting him down but an hour later, he was asleep and only woke a few times in the middle of the night but put himself back to sleep. It was awesome. Here's hoping it works again.**

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 _sammygirl1963_ – I just love torturing Clint. Can't help it. And when I mentioned to my husband that Clint was switching into Natasha he actually asked me if Clint would 'do something'. And I told him the truth. No, but I can insinuate it. And Tony making it worse, that's just a given in any situation, lol.

 _amy. d. fuller. 9_ \- Glad you loved the chapter. I like reading Clintasha but I just can't write it myself. I don't like that relationship. And while I can see Natasha and Bruce, I don't like it. So, I'd rather ship Natasha and Steve. As for drinking and reading, yeah. I've even had issues drinking while writing cause the idea pops into my head and I just laugh. Deadpool is the only character who breaks the fourth wall. He's mentally insane thanks to the experiments done on him so in the comics and in the movie, he'll have conversation with the readers/audience. But he also just kind of blurts out whatever is on his mind when he feels like. It's fun. And yes, he does swear a lot. But so don't many of the others, usually only in comics or in film as everything else is released for kids so the writers have to watch what they're doing. Thank you for loving the way I'm writing him. I keep feeling I'm not giving him enough justice. God, I'm sorry to hear about your family. But yeah, those types of issues are what I'm going for. When people are in Tony's body, they'll suddenly note the pain he's always in thanks to the reactor. When in Bruce, they'll have to deal with Hulk and so on. It's basically putting yourself in someone else's shoes, course this is literally.


	16. Chapter 16

Getting to the plane was much simpler than Bruce (as Steve) had expected. And Wade was right, the plane was waiting for them and the pilot didn't care that Steve's form was now acting differently than before. Wade chatted warmly with the man while Bruce settled in the back. It took a minute of meditating before Bruce realized he didn't need to. There was no Hulk to settle before the plane ride. It was just him and his own bundles of nerves. He gave a short sharp laugh which had Wade turning to face him.

"What's up doc?" the merc asked, raising his mask up to show off his face. Bruce shook his head, smiling away like a fool. "Ah. I get it. First ride since..."

"Since the other guy. Yeah. I mean, I flew in the Quinjet to a fight but nothing commercial like this. It's... Nice," Bruce commented. Wade nodded and moved to settle back in the cabin area as the plane began to get ready to leave. Bruce looked out the window. He had always loved flying before but once Hulk joined his mind, something about being trapped in a flying container had always set the green guy on edge.

"Gonna miss it?" Wade wondered. Bruce frowned. If he used the stone to get them back in place, then he was gonna have Hulk back. At first it was a depressing thought but then Bruce remembered. Clint had learned some new techniques that could help ease Hulk into trying new things. Finally Bruce shrugged. Wade gave a half hearted nod. "Who knows? Maybe the big guy could handle it."

"Yeah, who knows," Bruce muttered before grabbing the stone from the seat beside him. He looked it over as if there were directions on it. "You sure that was how you worked it before?"

"Yeah. And this last time too. I wanted everyone back to who they were before," Wade answered. Bruce looked to the merc. Maybe that's were Wade went wrong.

"Before what?" the doc inquired. Wade smiled.

"Before Doom got involved."

"I see. Why don't you try again and think of who we actually are supposed to be?" Bruce suggested, handing the stone over. Wade frowned and looked down at the stone as if it was some type of foreign device that he had never seen before.

"Uh... What?"

"Try thinking of us being back to ourselves. Me, being me and this body being Steve," Bruce explained as if speaking to a two year old. Wade nodded and sat back as the plane took off. Bruce waited a minute but nothing happened. He started looking around, wondering if Wade was even trying or if there was something special he needed to do. Finally, he relented. "Well?"

"Hmm?" Wade hummed, looking back to Bruce. Bruce looked to the stone and then back at Wade. Wade laughed as if what he was going to say next was obvious. "There's a cool down phase. It won't work till tomorrow."

"Seriously?" Bruce nearly shouted, already feeling his stress and blood pressure rise. For a moment, Bruce fought for control before realizing that he still didn't have to worry about it. Wade nodded, unconcerned with Bruce's continued ability to injure him.

"Wouldn't be much of a story without it," the merc joked. Bruce growled, for once wishing he had Hulk to help threaten and scare Wade. Not that it would work as Wade couldn't die. "No matter how much you wish I would."

"What?" Bruce asked, thrown by that last statement. Wade pointed to the sky as if it explained everything. Bruce shook his head, having forgotten about Wade's inability to stay in the here and now. "Never mind."

* * *

Pepper arrived to a great flourish of activity. She barely got a second to say hi to Tony (as Thor) before she was whisked away to the medical floor for a quick check-up. Tony, who had finalized rules with Clint (as Bruce) and Hulk, tried to follow but was denied full entrance into the medical room while the doctors worked. The genius 'patiently' waited in the hall for permission to visit with his wife and unborn child. Meanwhile, Clint headed down to Hulk's playroom to inform the big guy of the new rules around Tony's kid. Natasha (as Tony) and Arrow followed in case Hulk had a bad reaction to anything said. Steve (as Natasha) stayed waiting on the common floor after hearing the news of Bruce and Wade almost upon arrival. Thor (as Clint), in his guilt of the situation, had hidden himself up on the roof but now is using that as a distraction so he can look out for the guy's arrival.

"I fail to see them, Captain," Thor called through the comm unit he had thankfully grabbed earlier. The thunderer sighed, once again feeling the guilt crawl into his mind again. It was all his fault that they were still stuck like this... "I must apologize..."

"Thor, please. It isn't your fault. Bruce said they'll be here soon. All anyone can do now is wait," Steve replied, remembering his brief conversation with the doc only minutes prior to Pepper arriving. Bruce and Wade had landed at an airport in Boston and Fury sent a Quinjet to go pick them up and now everyone was just waiting on the quinjet to bring the two to the tower.

"Everything will be fine. We got the stone, Brucie'll be here any minute, Pepper's back and we all understand our new bodies better," Tony added, cutting into a conversation that he wasn't necessarily welcome too. Steve sighed and rolled his eyes, moving toward the outdoor platform to get his own look outside. As much as he wished Tony was right about everything being okay, he was getting the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon.

After that the trio dropped into silence. Everything going on had turned into a waiting game that made them tenser and tenser at the minutes passed. Bruce had said he'd explain more of why Wade couldn't change them back once he arrived and Tony wasn't getting much information from Pepper's doctors. Minutes passed until finally something changed.

"Captain!" Thor loudly declared. Steve winced at the volume in his ear and reached as if to take out the comm. Thankfully Thor's next statements were at a much more tolerable level. "I believe I see something. I believe it to be them!"

"Great! J, hack their comms and call up Brucie-bear!" Tony ordered as if everyone wanted to speak to the doctor right away. Steve knew that it was just that the genius didn't like waiting, he wanted to be doing something.

"Yes, Sir," JARVIS intoned into the comms. A moment passed and then there was a response.

"Tony?" Bruce questioned not knowing that JARVIS had connected everyone but Clint and Natasha to the quinjets' comm. Before Tony had a moment to reply, Steve cut in.

"Dr. Banner, it is nice to hear from... Well... You," Steve started, stuttering out by the end. There was a chuckle that could have only come from Tony which made Steve blush.

"Eloquent," the genius laughed. Steve glanced around, trying to see if anyone had any way of seeing him. He was thankful that no one but JARVIS could see and extra thankful that he had long ago made a deal with JARVIS to erase moments like this before Tony could see it.

"It's nice to hear from you all as well," Bruce chuckled back. "The pilot mentioned we'll be landing in a minute or so."

"Wonderful news," Thor answered.

"So, you guys still have the stone, right? I mean, you had to have lost it cause you haven't used it yet, right?" Tony anxiously asked.

"No... Listen, Deadpool mentioned to me one the flight back that we can't use the stone again till sometime tomorrow," Bruce replied. There was a shuffling in the background and the sound of Bruce shushing someone. Steve assumed that it was Wade trying to get over the comm and speak to them as well. Everyone seemed to ignore it as well.

"Oh... Is that good news?" Tony wondered, his anxious voice sounding like it was getting worse.

"Tony," Steve warned, not knowing where the genius was going with this.

"No, seriously? Is that supposed to be good news? Cause it sound bad to me," Tony continued. Steve sighed.

"I also question this news," Thor commented.

"I admit it's not good but we aren't really in a big rush to get back to normal yet," Bruce stated as if that was all.

"Speak for yourself!" Tony snapped. "The docs just told Peps that she could pop at any minute!"

"Is she in labor, right now?" Bruce questioned, his voice making the situation sound much seriousier than it really was. Tony frowned, mentally wondering what that had to do with anything.

"Well... No..." Tony sighed.

"Then we have time. Some women had been known to go through hours and sometimes even almost a day of labor before they give birth," Bruce soothed. He paused. Soft sounds of words came over the comm but no one could understand what the doc was saying or even hearing. Then Bruce came back on, loud enough to be heard. "Okay, look. We're landing on the platform now. Tony, I'll meet you outside medical and we'll talk more."

"Fine... Then maybe you can explain to these docs that it's my wife and future child they are baring me from!" Tony cried, growing louder as he went. Steve rolled his eyes at the hysterical nature of Tony. One would think the Captain would be used to it by now but no, Tony seemed to get worse and worse.

"I highly doubt they don't have a reason," Steve replied even as he turned to make his way to the elevator to meet with Bruce as well. Tony snorted.

"Yeah, like being mean," Tony muttered sounding like a dejected child.

"You'll be fine," Steve mentioned as he got into the elevator and watched the doors close.

"But I want to see my Pepper!" Tony whined into his ear. Steve shook his head as the doors opened upon a sight of Bruce and Wade.

"You saw her for a minute," Steve responded as if that was long enough. Bruce chuckled and mouthed 'Pepper'. Steve nodded as Wade chuckled and shook his head even as the merc left the elevator. The soldier had no idea how much that comment would get him in trouble.

"A minute! That's like not even a second for the amount of days she's been gone!" Tony exaggerated, tossing his hands into the air for emphasis. Bruce shook his head as the elevator closed on them and brought them down to Tony.

"More like three seconds a day," Bruce muttered under his breath. Steve chuckled at Bruce, the worst thing to do at the moment. Tony spun on the group as the doors opened. The genius was thinking that Steve was laughing at him.

"Is that funny to you? Funny that I barely got to see my love?" the genius snapped. Steve shook his head, intent on telling Tony why he had laughed but Tony's stress and anxiety won out. Bruce waved his hands in an effort to stop Tony from speaking. Tony didn't even notice. "What if that was Peggy? Hmm? Would a minute be long enough?"

The crack of skin meeting skin echoed down the hall. Bruce stood there helplessly in shock as Steve shook his hand out and Tony blinked in surprise. Being in different bodies, the effect that Steve wanted was wasted. Knowing Tony and what he would most likely do next, Steve didn't speak. He just turned and walked away. After a moment of standing there, Bruce sighed. Tony snorted and turned to face him but Bruce started shaking his head.

"Tony... Peggy died a few weeks ago," the doc mentioned before the genius could speak. Tony looked back down the hall that Steve had retreated down.

"Shit..."

"Mr. Stark?" a new voice called, drawing away the men's attention before Tony could chase after Steve. It was Pepper's OB.

"How is she?" Tony gasped, fearing for the worst for either his wife or unborn child. The doc held out his hands to calm the genius. Bruce sighed, knowing it wouldn't help.

"Her and the baby are fine," the doc confirmed. Tony sagged in relief. "There was a small knot in the umbilical cord that looked a little tight but has since relaxed."

"What does that mean?" Tony asked, not understanding what the doc was saying.

"What he means is that the umbilical cord has a small knot in it. If that knot gets too tight, the baby looses nutrients and oxygen," Bruce explained. Tony frowned. "Don't worry. Knots are actually quite common and aren't usually dangerous."

"Oh... Okay."

"We're gonna be heading out now-" the doc continued.

"What!? But I thought she was gonna pop?" Tony cried, spinning on the OB. The two doctors chuckled.

"Miss Potts has been ready to pop for nearly a week now. But that doesn't mean we all need to stay here," the OB began to say. Tony stopped him.

"But, if she pops, you need to be here!"

"Tony, calm down," Bruce ordered, seeing the genius beginning to hyperventilate. Tony looked to Bruce for a moment before pausing to take a deep breath. Rolling his eyes, Bruce continued. "What the doctor is trying to say is that any signs of Pepper getting ready, we can call the team and they'll come back. The baby isn't going to show up right away. They'll have time."

"Even with New York traffic," the OB joked, trying to lighten the tense mood. Tony snorted but neither of the others were certain if it was out of humor or disbelief. The OB sighed. "In the meantime, Miss Potts needs rest. We wouldn't want undue stress to her and the baby, especially with that knot. Anything she says goes."

"Okay," Tony whimpered, worried for his family. Bruce and the OB traded looks.

"Call when you need us, but I don't fore see any issues," the OB stated before turning and leaving. Bruce nodded, certain that he was going to have to speak with JARVIS to make sure that Tony wouldn't call over the doctor's team every two seconds.

* * *

It wasn't even two hours later that Tony attempted to call the doctors for Pepper. She tried to explain that it was a Braxton-Hicks but Tony feared the worst. Bruce came down and checked on her with his limited knowledge before following Pepper's order and kicked Tony out and banned the genius from seeing his wife. Considering he was banned, Tony figured he might as well get onto something he had actually wanted to do, talk to Clint. Thankfully, with the doctor's (and more importantly Pepper's) permission, Clint was out of Hulk's playroom.

"So... Uh…. Clint, can I talk to you?" Tony asked as soon as he found the archer. Clint, who had been talking with Natasha in the kitchen, froze. A panicked look overtook his face for a brief moment and Arrow perked up at his master's distress. "Don't worry, it's not that bad. I ain't gonna kick you out or anything."

"Um... Okay," Clint mumbled before glancing to Natasha. She nodded and got up. As she walked away, she patted her leg. Arrow jumped to his feet in excitement before rushing after the spy. Tony raised an eyebrow as they passed. "He had to go out for a walk."

"Ah... Well..." Tony began before stopping. He slowly walked further into the room and stood on the opposite side of the island from Clint. The duo stood like that for a few moments. Finally, Tony sighed deeply and looked to the island. Clint frowned. "Does Hulk... Or you, think that uh... You guys, I guess, could deal with Pepper giving birth?"

Clint snorted. Of all the things that Tony could have talked about, this was the last thing on his mind. Especially considering how little Tony seemed to trust him before. Thinking about the stress of childbirth, Clint knew he'd be fine. Suddenly memories flashed through his mind followed by a grumble of approval. But as a just in case, Clint remembered some of the bad times; times he never tried to remember but they haunted him every time... Well, either way, there was a grumble in the back of head of insecurity.

"Well... We've watched some videos online," Clint lied quickly. Hulk grumbled in his head at the statement. Clint ignored it, knowing that Tony had no idea. Memories flashed through his mind and Clint made a mental note to speak privately to Hulk later about them. "He thinks he can handle it. He gets that Pepper will be in pain and screaming throughout a lot of it but... If something bad starts to happen, I may need to leave cause he might not be able to handle it."

"Good... Okay..." Tony stuttered. Clint nodded, unsure what to say next. He wanted to talk to Tony about his experiences... Share what it was like for him but... Tony wasn't supposed to know. Hell, none of the Avengers were supposed to know.

"Is that it?" Clint wondered, feeling awkward. Tony looked up, surprised. Figuring that was it, Clint nodded and moved to leave.

"Well... I mean, the reason I brought it up was cause... Well, I'd like you there," Tony muttered, speaking softly like a lost teen. Clint froze, lost in his own mind for a moment. Hulk snorted, snapping Clint's attention back over to Tony.

"What?"

"Well... Peps and I talked about it since she got back... And well, lately... I haven't been a good... Anything to you. Not like how we used to be," Tony started. Clint stared at him in shock. He had no idea what to say yet again. While it was true that Tony hadn't been acting as close as they used to be, everyone was different due to this change. It wasn't surprising really. But there were times, a lot more than normal, were the things Tony did and said hurt more than before. "And well... We'd. No, I'd like to make it up to you."

"Tony," Clint interrupted, feeling like this was going to go a different way then what Tony planned.

"Pepper and I want you to be the baby's godparent!" Tony finished with a loud flourish. Clint gapped, stunned at the confession. For a moment, the two stared at each other. As they stared, Tony's face began to look upset while Clint's looked happier but neither seemed to notice to emotion on the other.

"Tony," Clint stuttered, too emotional to find the right words to say.

"I mean, you don't have to be! Pepper's got a cousin or something and... I might have another relative, somewhere," Tony quickly said, trying to backtrack before Clint said what the genius thought the archer would say. As the genius continued on, mumbling different things as he tried to cover over Clint, the archer suddenly burst into happy laughter. Tony stumbled to a stop before looking to Clint. The archer doubled over, losing Bruce's glasses as he gasped for breath for a moment. "Wait... What?"

"Tony," Clint gasped, calming from his laughter and picking up Bruce's glasses. Tony nodded. "I'd love to be your baby's godparent."

"Oh," Tony whispered. Clint chuckled before rounding the island and hugging the genius. It was really awkward in their new bodies but the duo made it work. Then they backed away from each other and Clint patted Tony's arm.

"Just, have a backup," Clint suggested. Tony raised an eyebrow, a confused look so similar to Thor's normal look that Clint laughed again. "I more than likely will die before you and Pepper."

Tony chuckled before he realized that Clint was serious. And thinking it over, Tony realized he was right. Out of everyone on the team, Clint was the one who was in the most danger. Normally on the outside, ignored by the others unless he asked for help, always watching over the others and no full uniform to protect him. Tony had been working on some uniform changes for the group but every design for Hawkeye's uniform never covered enough skin. In fact, Tony didn't tend to disrupt from everyone's original style, just added layers of protection. But now, designs flashed through the genius's head.

"I can fix that!" the genius promised. Clint scoffed, certain that Tony would try. But the archer was picky about his uniform. It had to move and flex in just the right ways. If it didn't, or was uncomfortable, Clint totally wasn't above joining a fight in boxers cause he was protesting the new style forced upon him.

"Tony," Clint called when the genius turned to go get to work on the designs. Tony paused to look back at the archer. His excited look stopped the archer from speaking for a moment. Clint was going to warn Tony about his peculiar tendencies but after seeing that look, Clint could only smile. "Thanks."

* * *

 **(WARNING: Triggers Ahead!)**

It was only five minutes past 3 am when Pepper woke up suddenly. She immediately knew something was wrong but couldn't figure it out. Unbeknownst to her, JARVIS had already let out an alarm and called the OB team. Tony was downstairs in the workshop working on Clint's new uniform with Bruce, so Pepper knew she was currently on her own but when she went to move, there was a sudden spasm. Instantly, Pepper knew that there was an issue with her baby.

"JARVIS!" she shrieked, falling quickly into a panic. She grabbed at her belly as if she could soothe the unborn child. A jerking motion under her skin made tears appear in her eyes.

"I have already alerted your doctors. They are presently on the way," JARVIS quickly intoned. Pepper sighed before feeling another spasm. She was unsure if the docs would make it in time. In fact, she almost wished that she had agreed with Tony and forced them to stay in one of the various extra rooms in the tower. "Dr. Banner is on his way up as well."

"Okay," Pepper gasped, rubbing her stomach with even more tears in her eyes. There was another spasm, much weaker but still there. Pepper moaned. She wanted someone here with her. Anyone, but she had told them all that she'd be fine and wanted to be alone. Suddenly the bedroom door burst open. Bruce's body came rushing in. Pepper sagged in relief.

"JARVIS sent out an alert," Clint called, looking highly panicked. He glanced over the situation before realizing he was the first person there. Pepper seemed relieved for a moment before she remembered. She may be looking at Bruce, but it was actually Clint that she was talking too. Tears began to fall from her face as she desperately wished everyone was back to normal. "Are you-"

"Don't you dare!" Pepper sharply accused. Clint's mouth snapped closed in shock. Of course she wasn't okay right now. Something was wrong and no one present could help her. Clint nodded, he had assumed as much but he didn't know what else to say.

"The baby's heart rate is sky rocketing, blood pressure is dropping and O2 stats are also dropping," JARVIS started listing. Clint paled. He knew what was wrong.

"Clint?" Pepper questioned, knowing that Clint knew something. He shook his head, lost in a memory before his skin began to change colors. Hulk didn't want to come out but Clint was receding, actually pushing Hulk forward. Pepper sat up, surprised that Clint was losing control. She had assumed he would have been the most calm around her giving birth. Shaking his head, Hulk made Clint rush toward the door. They left just as Tony and Bruce entered. Bruce rushed right to Pepper to check on her, not even missing a beat. But Tony looked back. "CLINT!?"

"What happened? Did he do something? Why was he changing?" Tony asked, desperate for an answer. When JARVIS set off the alarm earlier, it had sent Tony into a panic mode that Bruce couldn't get him out of. His questions spoke over Bruce asking JARVIS for vitals on the baby and Pepper.

"No. He didn't do anything... I don't get it, he just... Heard JARVIS and left," Pepper replied, speaking over Bruce and JARVIS. She shook her head, lost in the shock of the situation to really think about the ramifications. Tony glanced to his wife before looking to where Clint took off from. Clint had agreed that Hulk could handle this. Why wasn't he staying?

"Oh my god," Bruce called, stopping Tony and Pepper from thinking anymore about Clint. Tony rushed deeper into the room.

"What?" the duo questioned. Bruce looked up at them. Tony stood by Pepper's head and they held hands in worry. He felt bad, knowing there might not be much he could do.

"We need to do something, now!" Bruce told the couple as Natasha came rushing into the room.

"Clint said something was wrong?" she stated more than questioned. Bruce nodded, turning to look at her. Somehow, telling Natasha what was going on seemed easier than telling Tony and Pepper.

"I think the baby is dying," Bruce admitted. Everything seemed to stop. Natasha paled, understanding now why Clint had to leave. Tony nearly dropped to the ground in shock. Pepper let out a pained sob as Bruce looked back to the woman.

"What?" Tony choked out. Bruce sighed, wanting to just get to work. He needed help.

"That knot that the OB mentioned earlier. I think it tightened. Your baby is dying cause it can't get oxygen and blood. We don't have a lot of time," Bruce explained.

"Do something!" Pepper sobbed, more interested in someone saving her baby then hearing details. Bruce nodded, determined to save this little life.

"JARVIS, call the OB, I'm gonna need his help," the doc ordered as he got himself more comfortable between Pepper's legs. Bruce then pointed to the open bed on Pepper's right. "Natasha, I want you over there." He then pointed to a little further down Pepper's left side. "Tony, stand there."

Everyone quickly rushed to their positions and it wasn't long before the OB was connected on the phone. JARVIS listed off the baby's status while Bruce added his fears. The OB agreed that this sounded like a tied umbilical cord and started giving directions on how to try and force it to come undone. Amazingly enough, being told what to do had calmed Tony. He was able to focus and follow every instruction until suddenly he blinked and was on the other side of the room.

"Oh shit..." he muttered, looking down to see the Arc Reactor glowing dimly under his shirt. It took him less than a second to realize that while he was actually in his body, Bruce's body was not in the room with them. He moaned in sorrow, too distraught to realize that he was left with Thor and Steve.

"'Shit?' Natasha, what's wrong?" Pepper gasped, looking around at the confused and lost faces around her. She had no idea that the trio had switched once again. All she knew was that one second the rooms inhabitants had been working to save her child, now they just looked around. She focused on Tony's face, whom she last thought was Natasha.

"I'm... Me," Tony replied after a moment, looking up at his wife with a sorrowful expression. Pepper looked at Tony confused as between her legs, Steve's body jumped up.

"I'm... I'm so sorry," Steve (now as himself) stuttered, blushing furiously as he tried to cover his eyes. Pepper sobbed.

"No," she whined, understanding the ramifications of what just happened.

"I do not understand what has transpired," Thor (as himself as well) stated, backing away from the distraught family. The OB, who had been warned of the Avenger's switch, screamed something from the phone but no one paid attention. Pepper sobbed into Tony's chest as he held her closer. Steve and Thor traded looks, unsure what was happening as JARVIS had not alerted them to Pepper's situation.

"LISTEN TO ME!" the OB's voice screeched through JARVIS's speakers. The AI even increased the sound to make sure everyone was listening. Hearing the noise, the group jumped and looked to the nearest speaker. "I don't care what happened or who is currently in that room. But, that baby is slowly slipping away and I need whoever is there to be my hands. RIGHT NOW!"

Meanwhile, Bruce snapped to attention so fast that Hulk nearly came out due to the shock. Clint had escaped to Hulk's playroom as a just in case. After Hulk had made them leave Pepper earlier, the archer had gotten control of himself and warned Natasha what was happening before rushing off. But he hadn't trusted himself to go back. So now, Bruce, having finally returned to his body, was too far away to help Pepper.

"Damn it, Wade!" the doc cussed before rushing out of the room and heading quickly to the elevator. "JARVIS!"

"On its way, Dr. Banner. Sir, Captain Rogers and Mr. Odinson are attempting to help per the doctor's orders," JARVIS replied. Bruce nodded, boarding the elevator before the doors even finished opening. He slammed his finger onto the floor number for Pepper's room. "I also have security on their way to... Speak to Deadpool."

Bruce nodded again, mentally noting that JARVIS called Wade by his nickname. It was a sign that the AI was as displeased with Wade's timing as he was himself. "Keep me appraised on the situation?"

"The baby is still in distress. Vitals are still dropping. The OB's suggestions are not working," JARVIS intoned, small traces of sadness leaking into his computerized voice. Bruce sighed deeply. His disappearance was not good for the unborn child. No one that had been left in that room knew what to do. Those moments with no one doing anything or even asking for a better explanation would not help. Any chance of saving the baby was rapidly dwindling away.

"Tell them I'll be there soon."

* * *

 **(Warning now over)**

In an instant, Clint knew where he was and what had happened. In fact, he had actually felt it happen. The breeze blew by like a gentle wave, but Clint could feel the storm waging inside. For a moment, he was happy that he was back in his body but then he remembered the downside. He had been in Bruce's body at the moment of the switch. And Bruce's body was now in Hulk's playroom thanks to his inability to be near Pepper's dying kid. But even worse, Pepper and the baby needed Bruce... He sighed.

"Shit," he mumbled, dropping down onto the ledge to sit down. Yes, he really did want to go down and be there for Tony and Pepper but... He knew how this was going to end. And he couldn't go through something like that again. It hurt too much. Behind him, the roof door squeaked closed a moment before Natasha suddenly joined him.

"Thought I'd find you here," Natasha muttered. After learning what was happening to Pepper's baby, Natasha knew why Clint had run away. And she'd defend Clint's decision to her last breath but not say anything unless the archer wanted it. Clint nodded.

"Actually, didn't move," he admitted. Natasha nodded. Thor had mentioned a sudden liking to roof while as Clint. She had assumed that the thunderer liked it for the same reason as Clint. That it was peaceful, but she had never seen it as so. "How are they?"

"Not good," Natasha replied. Clint nodded again, he had assumed as much. "They're also worried about you."

"I know. But, I just can't," Clint sighed. Natasha nodded again. There wasn't much else to do but agree with this.

"They're gonna want an explanation."

"I know." Clint looked down the side of the tower. Natasha glanced at him. She frowned.

"Don't."

"I won't. I'll... I'll figure something out to tell them," Clint whispered. Natasha sighed.

"Don't lie anymore," she told him. Clint sighed. In the end, he didn't reply cause he couldn't promise that he wouldn't. This decision was not just up to him but really to someone else. No matter how much he wanted to tell his friends about the truth of his life, someone always stopped him. "Just... Try."

"Nat," Clint begged, knowing she knew that he couldn't keep that promise. She nodded and got up.

"I'm gonna go see if I can help." She started walking away. Clint looked out across New York.

"Ten minutes, Nat," he reminded. Natasha stopped walking. "It only takes ten minutes. JARVIS... Well, he let out the alarm almost fifteen minutes ago."

"Oh," Natasha muttered. Clint nodded. "I'm..."

"I don't deserve it. Save it for them," Clint said as he turned to get up. "I'm gonna go downstairs and pack. It's best for all of us if I take a break. Hell, if we all take a break."

"Let someone other than me know," Natasha sighed. Clint nodded knowing that he'd only be informing JARVIS. But, technically, JARVIS was someone. Sensing what Clint was going to do, she shook her head. "I'll let them know."

"Thanks," Clint mumbled before the two headed off the roof. They moved to the elevator and waited. Thankfully Clint's floor was higher than Pepper's and Tony's so they stopped there first. "I'll call."

"You better."

With that, Clint nodded a goodbye and disembarked from the elevator. Natasha watched him walk away as the elevator doors closed. She stood in contemplative silence as the elevator descended to Pepper's room. The doors opened to Steve, covered in blood, and Thor. Neither looked happy. Natasha walked past to see Bruce off to the side, cleaning something. She didn't look long enough to see what it was. Pepper and Tony sat on the blood stained bed, crying. The umbilical cord still attached to Pepper, the tight knot nearing the cut off end. Natasha sighed and turned back around. This was a private matter and she wasn't going to intrude.

"Where's Clint?" Steve softly asked when Natasha returned. She looked up at the Captain.

"Gone."

* * *

 **THE END!**

 **I can't believe I finally finished this story. It seems so much longer than it really is. Well, I have part of this sequel written but I'd like some more done before I post. We'll see what I can do. Who knows really. I'll try and post that as soon as I can but with my limited time, I can't promise.**

 **So we finally got a diagnosis on Clint. His P10, in his genetic strands, is missing or somehow wrong. This explains the way he looks, extra folds in his head, and his Autism tendencies. We'll learn more about it later next week. Anyways, Clint's shifted into big boy bed. And he's already learned that he can make it over the toddler rail that is supposed to keep him in the bed... So, we'll put him to bed and then go to bed ourselves and about halfway through the night, we wake to Clint staring at us. Some nights we just put him in our bed but other nights we bring him back to his room and get him back to sleep.**

 **Darius is doing perfectly fine. Sleeping through the night on his own very well. And today we actually gave him his first bites of 'real' food. Mostly just rice cereal mixed with his formula. But he had it and seems to be doing fine. We'll see how long it lasts. He still has a chance to be sick later.**

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 _sammygirl1963_ – I'm glad you still are enjoying the story. I hope the same hold true for this chapter even with the ending. Yup, Darius is sleeping fine on his own but then my husband and I decided to up our chances by making Little Clint's bed into full. Now he's everywhere. Sorry to hear that Hurricane Matthew hit you. My mom lives in Florida but thankfully is on the other side of Florida then what was hit. I live up in Massachusetts so it didn't even touch me.


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